Author: Mobile Syrup

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Mobile Syrup

Picture-in-picture support for all iOS users not coming ‘in a matter of days’ [Update]

Update 04/11/2022 2:18pm ET: It turns out that @TeamYouTube‘s tweet was in reference to YouTube TV and not the standalone YouTube app. Picture-in-picture support for all iOS 15+ devices using the YouTube TV app is rolling out now. As for the YouTube app, picture-in-picture support is still limited to premium subscribers on Android.

Original story below:

All iPhone users running iOS 15 or later would soon be able to enjoy YouTube in picture-in-picture mode, according to a Tweet from @TeamYouTube. The feature will allow you to continue watching videos in a floating window while you use your device for other activities.

While picture-in-picture has been available as a feature on iOS and iPadOS since the launch of iOS 14, enabled in apps like Netflix, Disney + and Apple TV, the feature was never implemented on YouTube.

Back in June 2021, YouTube said that it will add the feature for all premium users, and that it has plans to enable the feature for all users in the future. Now, according to @TeamYouTube‘s tweet, the feature will be available to all iOS 15+ devices “in a matter of days.”

Picture-in-picture availability has been spotty for iOS users recently. Some resorted to using the service on their web browser, while others have enjoyed picture-in-picture on their Android devices since 2017. Knowing that the feature will soon be enabled for all iOS 15+ users is a sigh of relief for everyone who has been waiting for the feature to drop since last year.

This comes soon after YouTube revamped the full-screen viewing experience on its iOS and Android apps.

Source: @TeamYouTube

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Mobile Syrup

Apple said to be bringing updates to notifications and new health-tracking features via iOS 16

A new report indicates that iOS 16 may feature “significant enhancements” in replacement of a more drastic overhaul. Key improvements that are expected are said to include updates to Apple’s notifications. Additionally, the introduction of new health-tracking features is anticipated.

Word comes by way of Bloomberg’s Marc Gurman. In this latest Power On newsletter (seen by Engadget), Gurman discussed his expectations for iOS 16. “I’m not expecting an end-to-end redesign of iOS’s interface, even though it hasn’t changed much since iOS 7 nearly a decade ago,” Gurman stated.

The newsletter did not disclose too much regarding the iOS 16 enhancements. Gurman merely stated that Apple is likely to include an “update to notifications and new health-tracking features.”

Later on, Gurman discussed that WatchOS 9 might feature “major upgrades to activity and health tracking.” Once again, the extent of which is currently unknown. When turning our attention to macOS 13, there isn’t too much known about what Apple may bring to the table.

Additionally, Apple will likely use WWDC to discuss iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS 13, watchOS 9, and tvOS 16. WWDC kicks off on June 6th with Apple hosting the event until June 10th.

Finally, shifting focus from software to hardware, Gurman did reiterate a lot of what he believes Apple is developing. This includes several new Macs, including the redesigned MacBook Air alongside the revamped 13-inch MacBook Pro. On top of that, Gurman states an updated 24-inch iMac is in the works, as is a new Mac mini.

iOS 15.4 has been met with a fair amount of scrutiny due to battery draining issues users experienced. Apple has since released iOS 15.4.1 to remedy the situation for users. It will be interesting to see how the launch of iOS 16 pans out later this year.

Source: Bloomberg Via: Engadget 

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Mobile Syrup

For All Mankind Season 3 to debut on Apple TV+ June 10

Apple has revealed that For All Mankind is returning to the company’s Apple TV+ streaming service on Friday, June 10th, 2022.

It’s been nearly a year since the sophomore season of the alternative history series concluded. Now, Apple is preparing For All Mankind Season 3 to focus on the space race to Mars. “The global superpowers set their sights on the red planet in the newest leg of the space race,” the company announced in a tweet.

For All Mankind focuses on an alternative reality where the space race never ended. The series follows the Soviet Union successfully beating the US to the moon and the aftermath. We get a look at the lives of NASA astronauts, their families, and America’s bid to catch up.

Now, moving into the landscape of the mid-90s, the US and Soviet Union turned their attention to successfully landing on Mars. “The Red Planet becomes the new front in the Space Race not only for the U.S. and the Soviet Union but also an unexpected new entrant with a lot to prove and even more at stake,” according to the official synopsis.

For All Mankind’s third season will see the return of stars Joel Kinnaman, Wrenn Schmidt, Shantel VanSanten, Sonya Walger, Jodi Balfour, Cynthy Wu, Krys Marshall, Casey Johnson, and Coral Peña. The series was created by Emmy Award-winner Ronald D. Moore alongside Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert.

Last year, to coincide with the launch of the second season, Apple released an AR game to bridge its seasons. It’s unclear if Apple plans to develop additional ARG marketing or promos for the third season.

For All Mankind Season 3 is said to have a run of 10 episodes running weekly.

Apple TV+ is available in Canada for $5.99/month.

Source: Apple

Image credit: Apple

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Mobile Syrup

Vivo announces X Fold with two ultrasonic fingerprint scanners

China-based smartphone maker Vivo has announced a new foldable smartphone. While the phone is in no way coming to Canada, it’s some interesting hardware worth looking at.

Dubbed the Vivo X Fold, the device folds like the Galaxy Fold 3, featuring a smartphone screen on the outside and a tablet-sized folding display on the inside. The outside display sports a 6.53-inch FHD+ 120Hz OLED panel that takes up the entirety of the front. Additionally, it has a 21:9 aspect ratio, similar to some of the slimmer handsets on the market, like the Motorola One Vision and the Sony Xperia 1 III. The foldable display sports an 8.03-inch 120Hz OLED panel with a 2160 x 1,916-pixel resolution.

Like Samsung, Vivo uses an ultra-thin glass on the folding panel that’s certified for up to 300,000 folds, which equals up to 80 folds per day for ten years. Vivo is also saying that the inside screen has a “crease-free” design, which, if true, is pretty spectacular. Additionally, the handset sports two ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanners, one for each display. That’s pretty rare as most foldables use physical fingerprint scanners still. Furthermore, the phone is equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, 4,600mAh battery, 66W charging and 50W wireless charging.

Alongside these top-of-the-line features, the X Fold sports a 50-megapixel primary shooter, 48-megapixel ultrawide lens,  a 12-megapixel sensor with a 2x telephoto lens and an 8-megapixel 5x periscope shooter. Both displays have hole-punch camera cutouts with 16-megapixel sensors.

Lastly, the X Fold comes with an alert/mute slider like OnePlus phones.

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Mobile Syrup

Ericsson announces ‘indefinite suspension’ of business in Russia

Dusseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany – September 9, 2021: Headquarters of Ericsson Germany in Dusseldorf, Germany – ERICSSON is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company

Telecommunications company Ericsson has indefinitely suspended business in Russia.

According to a press release, the company has put its 600 employees on paid leave.

“Ericsson is engaging with customers and partners regarding the indefinite suspension of the affected business,” the company said in a statement. “The priority is to focus on the safety and well-being of Ericsson employees in Russia and they will be placed on paid leave.”

According to Reuters, the suspension comes six weeks after the company started to review how Western sanctions on Russia would impact its operations in the country.

The company says it put aside provisions in Swedish Krona worth $95 million USD to cover possible losses by cancelling activity in Russia.

Ericsson stopped customer deliveries in February.

Various other large companies, including Sony and Google, have suspended sales in Russia.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Ericsson, Reuters

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter reverses decision on how deleted embedded Tweets appear on external websites

After changing how deleted Tweets embedded on external websites look earlier last week, it appears like Twitter is Ctrl+Z-ing its decision amid critical feedback.

Last week, we reported that embedded Tweets, such as the ones on MobileSyrup or any other publication’s stories that have been deleted since being embedded now show up either as a blank white box or as the Tweet link. This resulted in a big gap in stories, where the absence of embedded Tweets could serve as a lack of context. Now, as reported by The Verge, Twitter is undoing the change, and deleted embedded Tweets will once again show up as unformatted text.

“After considering the feedback we heard, we’re rolling back this change for now while we explore different options,” said a Twitter spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “We appreciate those who shared their points of view — your feedback helps us make Twitter better.”

Embedded Tweets that have been deleted would now show up with the original text from the Tweet, along with their author and publishing date. According to Twitter senior product manager Eleanor Harding, the initial change was implemented to “better respect when people have chosen to delete their Tweets,” and it seems like Twitter has temporarily reversed its decision until it finds a better way to implement the change.

This comes soon after Twitter announced that it will finally add the long-requested edit button to the platform.


Twitter changes how deleted Tweets appear on external websites


Twitter changes how deleted Tweets appear on external websites

News about Elon Musk purchasing a majority stake in Twitter seems to have overshadowed a monumental change in how the platform handles embedded Tweets. Embedded Tweets that have since been deleted to be specific.


Read Now

Source: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Remaining Russian channels on Canadian TVs could follow RT’s fate if CRTC receives complaints

Weeks after RT was pulled off Canadian airwaves, government officials have made it clear remaining Russian TV channels still in circulation could meet the same fate.

According to reporting from Cartt.ca, Canadian Heritage said their “next steps are dependent” on the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

Removing RT started when Canadian Heritage requested the CRTC investigate the network. The CRTC collected comments from Canadians and telecom providers about RT’s presence in Canada as part of the process.

The commission received 373 submissions. 350 were in favour of removing RT. Several operators, including Access Communications and Shaw, had removed the channel from their lineups before the CRTC’s decision.

On the future of other Russian networks, a Canadian Heritage spokesperson said they expect the CRTC to monitor all broadcasters for compliance.

“We continue to be led by affected communities. Our next steps should depend on their input,” the spokesperson from Canadian Heritage told Cartt.ca.

The publication further reported the CRTC is aware of Russian programming, including some sponsored by Russia’s government and authorized to air in Canada. The CRTC said it would follow its process to deal with any complaints about these services.

“Since the publication of the RT and RT France decision, the Commission has not launched any public proceeding to examine the status of any channel on the list of services authorized for distribution in Canada,” a CRTC spokesperson told Cartt.ca.

Source: Cartt.ca 

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Mobile Syrup

Here are some of my favourite anime on Crunchyroll

Last year, Sony’s Funimation bought Crunchyroll for $1.2 billion USD (roughly $1.5 billion CAD), and last month Funimation announced that it will move all of its content over to the platform.

Even more recently, Crunchyroll announced that it will no longer offer free ad-supported viewing on new and continuing series.

With Crunchyroll in the news so often, it’s time for me to highlight some of my favourite anime available on the anime streaming service.

Here’s what I’m currently watching

Here are some of my favourites

Let us know in the comments below what your favourite anime on the platform is.

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Mobile Syrup

Elon Musk decides not to join Twitter’s board of directors

After purchasing a majority stake in Twitter and becoming the platform’s largest shareholder, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was set to join Twitter’s board of directors as a ‘class II’ director until 2024, but now, Musk has stepped back from the new role.

Revealed in a tweet from Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal, Musk decided not to join Twitter’s board the same morning when it was initially announced that he will be taking a seat at the round table.

“We announced on Tuesday that Elon would be appointed to the Board contingent on a background check and formal acceptance,” said Agrawal in his Tweet. “Elon’s appointment to the board was to become officially effective 4/9, but Elon shared that same morning that he will no longer be joining the board. I believe this is for the best. We have and will always value input from our shareholders whether they are on our Board or not. Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input.”

Since news first came out about Musk purchasing a major stake in the social media company, the Tesla CEO has been Tweeting about ways to make the platform better, including a now-deleted Tweet about adding a new profile checkmark for those who pay for Twitter Blue and a Tweet about converting the company’s San Francisco office to a homeless shelter. The majority stockholder also polled his followers about the addition of an edit button, only for Twitter to announce the very next day that it is adding the long-requested feature while clarifying that it has been working on adding an edit button since last year.

Image credit: @elonmusk

Source: @paraga

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Mobile Syrup

The Batman is coming to Crave on April 18

Bell has confirmed that The Batman will begin streaming in Canada exclusively on Crave on April 18th.

This is a particularly notable announcement since it’s the same date that the film hits the U.S.-only HBO Max service. In 2021, Warner Bros.’ film slate — including The Suicide Squad, Dune and The Matrix Resurrections — debuted on HBO Max and in U.S. theatres simultaneously, but Canadians had to wait several months for them to come to Crave.

As well, The Batman‘s streaming release comes just six weeks after the film opened in theatres on March 4th. A Crave subscription starts at $9.99/month for a Mobile plan, which includes access to HBO content like The Batman. However, a $19.99/month Crave Total subscription is required for streaming this content on any of Crave’s supported devices.

Co-written and directed by Matt Reeves, The Batman follows a younger version of the iconic DC superhero as he tracks down a serial killer known as The Riddler. Robert Pattinson stars as Batman, with the supporting cast including Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Paul Dano as The Riddler, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth and Colin Farrell as The Penguin.

Image credit: Warner Bros.