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Ontarians getting hourly electricity use data from Westario ahead of 2023 deadline

Westario Power’s forthcoming ‘Empowered’ mobile app will allow Ontario residents to monitor exactly how much electricity they consume on an hourly basis, according to a CTV News report.

The app, which is part of the Green Button program, “provides you as a customer with access, to energy usage data in a friendly format, so you can better manage your energy use,” said Jenny Alfandary, Westario Power, president and CEO, in a statement given to CTV News.

This comes as a precursor to November 2023, when all Ontario utilities will have to provide customers with access to their hourly energy usage as part of the province’s Green Button initiative.

Westario Power, which operates in Ontario communities like Bruce, Wellington, and Huron counties, is following in the footsteps of London Hydro and Essex Powerlines, both of which allow their customers to make energy management choices through the ‘Empowered’ app.

“For the first time, Ontarians can choose an electricity plan, that best suits their lifestyle, and electricity use,” says Alfandary.

Westario’s ‘Empowered’ app is set to launch on May 25th. However, utilities have until 2023 to provide customers with access to their hourly energy usage.

Image credit: CTV News

Source: CTV News

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Mobile Syrup

Game of Thrones prequel ‘House of the Dragon’ hits Crave on August 21

Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon is coming to Crave on August 21st.

MobileSyrup has received a statement from a Crave spokesperson confirming that the series will hit the subscription platform on the same date as it will in the U.S.

The series is set to air 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones and tells the story of the House of Targaryen.

House of the Dragon stars Paddy Considine, Olivia Cooke, Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy and Fabien Frankel, Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best and Sonoya Mizuno. And the series is set to have 10 episodes.

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Mobile Syrup

Activision Blizzard to pay $18 million in sexual harassment suit

A California judge has approved an $18 million USD (about $22.5 million CAD) settlement in Activision Blizzard’s sexual harassment suit.

During a virtual hearing on March 29th, Judge Dale S. Fischer signed the agreement with the intent to close the case, although she acknowledged that she couldn’t stop anyone from filing an appeal.

The settlement pertains to a July 2021 lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing alleging a “frat boy” culture at Activision Blizzard. In the lawsuit, there were numerous reports of sexual harassment and other gender-based mistreatment at the Santa Monica-based gaming publisher.

As part of the settlement, anyone who worked at Activision Blizzard between September 1st, 2016 and March 29th, 2022 can submit a claim about sexual harassment, retaliation or pregnancy discrimination. Further, all “supervisory employees” at Activision Blizzard will be required to attend training on harassment and discrimination, while all employees will receive expanded mental health resources.

While A Better ABK, an advocacy group consisting of employees from Activision, Blizzard and King, hasn’t issued an official statement on the settlement, it’s unlikely that anyone who isn’t an executive is happy with this. After all, $18 million USD is absolutely nothing to a company like Activision Blizzard. For context, CEO Bobby Kotick, gaming’s most overpaid executive who was accused of covering up the toxic work culture, could receive more than $400 million USD (about $500 million CAD) once Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been completed.

In the meantime, though, A Better ABK has been calling for unionization to help protect employees in the future. Activision-owned Raven, the developer behind Call of Duty: Warzone, has already announced a union, and A Better ABK has voiced its support for more unionization across both the company and industry writ large. Microsoft, for its part, says it won’t stand in the way should Activision Blizzard decide to recognize any unions.

Source: United States District Court — Central District of California Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

PlayStation’s Spring Sale discounts PS4, PS5 games up to 75 percent off

The PlayStation Store’s Spring Sale is offering a variety of triple-A games and more at a discounted price.

Games like NBA 2K22, Ghost of Tsushima, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Demon’s Souls are on sale until April 27th.

You can check out the complete list of games, here.

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Mobile Syrup

Dyson reveals noise-cancelling headphones with built-in air purifier

No, the above headline was not created in a meme generator.

Dyson has revealed a pair of noise-cancelling headphones that feature a built-in air purifier designed to protect the wearer from air pollution. Dyson is most well known for its various high-end vacuum and air filtering devices, and the reveal of the Dyson Zone marks the company’s first foray into the world of audio.

On the audio side, the headphones feature three active noise cancellation modes: ‘Isolation,’ ‘Conversation’ and ‘Transparency.’ Isolation is the highest-level form of noise cancellation, followed by Conversation, which allows the wearer to hear people speaking around them by amplifying their voices. Finally, Transparency passes surrounding audio directly through the Dyson Zone’s built-in mics.

The built-in filter features a potassium-enriched carbon filter that utilizes electrostatic filtration to clean the air through for modes: ‘Low,’ ‘Medium,’ ‘High’ and ‘Auto.’ Each mode is focused on a specific breathing pattern. For example, if you’re working out or doing physical activity, you’d likely want the filter portion of the Zone to be set to high to make your breathing easier.

Dyson emphasizes that the slightly dystopian-looking device hasn’t been designed with COVID-19 in mind and that it started development roughly six years ago, long before the start of the ongoing pandemic. The company says its engineers have experimented with over 500 different prototypes.

Jake Dyson, Dyson’s chief engineer wearing the Dyson Zone.

“Air pollution is a global problem — it affects us everywhere we go. In our homes, at school, at work and as we travel, whether on foot, on a bike or by public or private transport. The Dyson Zone purifies the air you breathe on the move,” said Dyson chief engineer Jake Dyson in a recent press release. “And unlike face masks, it delivers a plume of fresh air without touching your face.”

Dyson says the Zone will release this coming fall, but it’s still unclear how much it will cost. Given Dyson’s various Air Purifiers are priced in the range of $800 in Canada, I’d expect the Zone headphones/air purifier to cost well over $1,000.

Though the tech powering the Dyson Zone is undeniably cool, it’s unlikely many people will be willing to wear a device like this in public, especially since it’s not COVID-specific or a replacement for a KN95 mask. Still, it has the potential to allow you to live out your Cyberpunk 2077 dystopian dreams in real-life.

Image credit: Dyson 

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Mobile Syrup

Instagram-like ‘collab’ feature is in the works at Twitter

It seems like Twitter is working on a feature similar to Instagram Collabs.

According to Twitter tipster Alessandro Paluzzi, who’s been following the development of the feature by digging through the Twitter app’s code, the San Francisco, California-based company first started testing the feature back in December.

Paluzzi’s latest update on the feature shows how it will look once widely rolled out, and according to the screenshot, you’ll be able to invite other Twitter accounts to collaborate with you by ‘asking’ them to co-own a Tweet.

If they accept the co-ownership, the Tweet will automatically go up and show both accounts as the author(s).

It’s worth noting that the collaborate feature will only work with accounts that are public, and follow you.

As of right now, if two individuals, brands or influencers have to share a joint statement, or promote something together, they usually both share the same Tweet and tag each other to indicate the collaboration. With the in-development feature, releasing joint statements would become much easier, as you’ll only have to put out one Tweet instead of publishing two separate ones, with the co-owned tweet appearing on both authors’ timelines.

We aren’t sure when Twitter aims to widely release the feature, though judging by Paluzzi’s leaks, it seems that it wouldn’t be a long wait.

Source: @alex193a

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Mobile Syrup

Telus working to bring PureFibre X network to Coquitlam and kʷikʷəƛ̓əm First Nation

Telus is investing $110 million to bring its PureFibre X network to Coquitlam and kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) First Nation in B.C.

The new internet tier offers upload and download speeds of 2.5Gbps. Telus first launched the tier last month in Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley.

The telecom giant says the platform offers the fastest speeds in the country among major providers.

Work on the PureFibre network in Coquitlam is underway, and a majority of homes and businesses will be connected by the end of next year.

“This addition to our infrastructure will also allow us to better communicate with our members who live here in our ancient village of slakəyánc (Coquitlam I.R. 1) as well as with our members who live in other parts of Canada and the United States,” John Peters, Councillor kʷikʷəƛ̓əm First Nation, said.

“As well, the upgrade will allow us to utilize new Telus tools and technology, such as their online digital literacy courses and Vidflex by Worldplay, and provide new ways for the Nation to share our language and cultural activities and be better connected to each other, no matter where we live.”

Telus’ PureFibre X internet plan also includes Wi-Fi 6 technology, the fastest Wi-Fi available in Western Canada. The combination of the two will allow people to experience faster speeds on more devices at the same time. Users can simultaneously game, answer video calls, and stream in 4K.

Telus plans on expanding its PureFibre network to more communities in the coming years.

Source: Telus

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Mobile Syrup

Intel unveils Arc laptop graphics, more GPUs coming this summer

Intel revealed its new Arc A-Series GPUs at an event on March 30th. A-Series GPUs will cover laptops, desktops, and workstations, but Intel put the focus on its laptop options to start.

The main two offerings Intel unveiled were the A350M targeting ultra-thin designs and the A370M for more performance in thin-and-light designs. Both of these fall under the ‘Arc 3’ category, with Arc 5 and Arc 7 laptops coming in early summer. The company also shared a teaser video of its upcoming desktop GPU expected this summer.

Intel says Arc 3 graphics will offer enhanced 1080p gaming and content creation. For A370M specifically, Intel says it can deliver more than 60 frames per second (fps) at 1080p on “a range of popular titles.”

Moreover, Intel says many of the first laptops with Arc graphics will be Intel Evo designs. Evo, for those unfamiliar, is a certification program of sorts — laptops marked as ‘Evo’ meet various performance and hardware criteria set out by Intel, such as being lightweight and offering great battery life.

Intel’s new discrete GPUs bring support for Direct X 12 and dedicated ray-tracing hardware, but the first batch announced by Intel only offer around twice the power of the company’s integrated Xe graphics.

Still, this is the first of many GPUs, and it’s likely that Arc 5 and 7 hardware — which will offer more graphics cores, ray-tracing units, memory, and power — will be more appealing to high-end gamers when they arrive this summer.

Intel also showed off its artificial intelligence (AI) ‘XeSS’ super-sampling system that can upscale games to higher resolutions on the fly. Unfortunately, it’s not available yet but will arrive in early summer. Moreover, based on what Intel has said, it seems like XeSS will rely on developers supporting the tech for best results.

Further, as The Verge points out, Intel largely avoided comparing its Arc offerings to hardware from other companies, namely AMD, Nvidia, and Apple. As such, we’ll need to wait on tests from reviewers to see how these products stack up to the competition.

Still, it seems like some of Intel’s tech will help give it an edge. For example, there’s ‘Deep Link,’ which allows systems sporting both Intel CPUs and GPUs to optimize power-sharing to give hardware the juice it needs to complete a task.

Ultimately, this first showing suggests there’s potential to be excited about, but most people should reserve full judgement for real-world tests and for whatever Intel has up its sleeves for the summer.

Source: Intel Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Natural Resources Canada invests $937,250 to install 107 EV chargers across NB

In an effort to meet the country’s 2035 100 percent new zero-emission vehicle goal, the Government of Canada is trying to make the process of purchasing, charging and driving electric vehicles (EVs) easier for people in New Brunswick, and across the country in general.

Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson announced yesterday a $937,250 investment in NB Power, funded through the Natural Resources Canada’s Zero-Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program (ZEVIP), to help support the installation of up to 107 EV chargers across New Brunswick.

The 107 chargers will include Level 2 (208 / 240 V connectors 3.3 kW to 19.2 kW) chargers, fast chargers (20 kW to 49 kW), and fast chargers 50 kW and above. Please read the program guidelines for your eligibility criteria.

NB Power will select recipients of chargers depending on the demand, and the “EV chargers will then be installed in public places, multi-unit residential buildings, on streets, at workplaces or at facilities for servicing light-duty vehicle fleets by March 2024,” reads Natural Resources Canada’s release.

“We’re making electric vehicles more affordable and charging more accessible where Canadians live, work and play,” said Wilkinson. “Investing in more EV chargers, like the ones announced today in New Brunswick, will put more Canadians in the driver’s seat on the road to a net-zero future and help achieve our climate goals.”

It’s worth noting that there are several eligibility criteria and requirements for New Brunswick residents to participate in the new EV program. Read the program guidelines to learn more.

Source: Natural Resources Canada

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Mobile Syrup

Here are the free games hitting PlayStation Plus in April 2022

Every month, Sony offers a few PlayStation games at no additional cost to those subscribed to its PlayStation Plus service.

Now, the company has unveiled the three games hitting PS Plus in April.

First off, this month’s PS5 game is the third-person action multiplayer title Hood: Outlaws & Legends. The PS4 version is also free with PS Plus.

Meanwhile, the two free PS4 titles are the platformer SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated and roguelike deck builder Slay the Spire.

All three games will be free through PS Plus from April 5th to May 11th. In the meantime, March’s free PS Plus titles will remain available until April 4th.

A PlayStation Plus subscription costs $69.99/year in Canada.

In related news, PlayStation has finally unveiled its long-awaited expansion to the service, which will retain the PS Plus branding. Launching in June, the updated PS Plus will be broken into three tiers which offer game streaming, classic PS1/PS2/PSP titles, free game trials and more. Read a full breakdown here.

Image credit: THQ Nordic

Source: PlayStation