Author: Mobile Syrup

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Mobile Syrup

Reddit adds a new IG-like discover tab to its mobile apps

If Reddit already wasnt addictive enough, the San Francisco, California-based company has announced that it’s adding a new Instagram-like Discover tab to its mobile app that will show users a curated list of content, including photos, videos and GIFs.

This is the first major change introduced to the app in the last two years and will allow users to find unearthed content from subreddits similar to those they normally interact with.

The discover tab sits second from the bottom left, and replaces the communities, custom feeds and subscriptions tab.

“We’re ushering in a new era of discovery on Reddit, with images and video top of mind,” said Jason Costa, director of product for content and communities at Reddit in a blog post.

“We’re making discovering relevant content and communities more intuitive with the Discover Tab. It’s a great new way for people to explore and engage with hundreds of thousands of communities around the world.”

Once you click on the new Discover tab, you’ll be greeted by a topic filter that allows you to look for content and communities regarding a specific topic, and right underneath the tab is where the content is shown.

Reddit says that during testing the new feature, one in five testers joined at least one new community, alluding to the fact that the new tab is working the way it’s intended to.

In addition to the Discover tab, Reddit is also introducing new Community Drawers and Profile Drawers to its mobile app. The former of the two drawers include ‘Moderating Entry Points’ for mods to see information about their subreddits, ‘Your Communities’ where you can see all the communities you are subscribed to, ‘Following’ and ‘r/all.’ Community Drawers can be pulled up by tapping the drop-down menu from the top left of the home screen.

On the other hand, the Profile Drawer is where users would now go to access their profile and customize it. The drawer can be pulled up either by swiping left or tapping the profile icon on the top right.

The new features are rolling out today for the Reddit app on iOS and Android.

Image credit: Reddit

Source: Reddit

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Mobile Syrup

Québecor Media reports fourth quarter revenue increase, details on Vidéotron growth in quarterly report

Montreal, QC, Canada – September 4, 2021: Quebecor headquarters in Montreal, QC, Canada. Quebecor Inc. is a Canadian diversified media and telecommunications company.

Québecor Media says it grew its revenue by $37 million in the fourth quarter of 2021.

A majority of this increase came from the media sector ($26.6 million), and $12.2 million came from telecommunications. Sports and entertainment made up the rest.

These are the extent of the details on the fourth quarter, published in the telecom company’s quarterly report.

Looking at 2021 as a whole, the company’s revenue increased by $236.6 million overall.

The company’s flanker brand, Vidéotron, increased revenue for mobile services and equipment by eight percent or just over $73 million through 120,800 new connections.

Revenue for internet access increased by $7 million through 44,000 new subscriptions. Revenue for wireline equipment increased by just over $52 million.

The report highlights a number of new services and investments Vidéotron made, signalling the company’s growth.

In December 2021, Vidéotron acquired 294 blocks of 3500MHz band. Valued at $830 million, more than half of the investment is going to Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia.

“With this spectrum and with favourable conditions that would ensure the economic viability of mobile virtual network operators, which are now mandated by the CRTC, Vidéotron would be the independent player best-placed to ensure the emergence of real competition across Canada,” Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO of Québecor, said in a statement.

Not mentioned in the report is a subsidiary brand of Vidéotron called Fibrenoire and its acquisition of a 3.5GHz spectrum license in the summer of 2021.

The validity of the purchase is being discussed in federal court as Telus accused Vidéotron of only creating the brand to acquire the 5G license. Earlier this week, lawyers for Telus argued details on proof of active customers, subscriber count, and its retail distribution network wasn’t shared with Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada.

The report from Québecor also touches on the launch of Vrai, a subscription service that focuses on lifestyle and entertainment content. This service is also facing legal trouble, this time through the CRTC.

BCE has an ongoing complaint the service doesn’t follow the rules laid out by the telecom regulatory body. In response, Québecor says BCE’s arguments are false and the complaint should be dismissed. More details are available here.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Québecor Media

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Mobile Syrup

Fido raises plan prices by a few dollars after dropping $58/15GB deal

Rogers’ flanker brand Fido rolled out increased plan prices, marking an end to its ongoing $58/15GB deal.

Fido’s on-again-off-again $58/15GB deal came back on February 17th after the provider removed it for a few days. However, it seems unlikely the plan will come back again — it’s been replaced with a $60/mo 15GB plan. Like other flanker brands Koodo and Virgin Plus, the $58/15GB deal was actually a 10GB plan with a bonus 5GB of data.

It’s worth noting Bell’s Virgin Plus similarly replaced its $58/15GB promo plan with a $60/15GB plan. However, unlike Virgin Plus, Fido kept its 10GB plan around — it costs $58 per month.

Finally, Fido increased the cost of its 8GB plan from $52 to $55/mo.

Although the price increase isn’t huge, it’s still frustrating to see. It’s especially annoying when you consider these three plans are the only ones Fido offers to customers who want to buy a phone. The provider has cheaper ‘Starter’ plans, but those are limited to customers who bring their own devices.

At the time of publication, Telus’ Koodo had not changed its plan prices. Bell’s Virgin Plus has — you can read about those here.

Fido’s plans are available here.

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Mobile Syrup

Virgin Plus bumps up plan prices by $2 or $3 per month

Bell flanker brand Virgin Plus raised the price of two of its main three plan offers, marking an end to some ongoing deals.

Back in January, Virgin — alongside Telus’ Koodo — added $58/mo 15GB promotional plans. In both cases, the plans were marked as 10GB plans with 5GB data bonuses. They were also limited-time offers. Fast forward to February 17th, Virgin Plus attached an end date of February 22nd to the $58/15GB plan.

Now that the date has come and gone, Virgin Plus has replaced the $58/15GB plan with a $60/mo 15GB plan. Sure, an extra $2/mo isn’t a whole lot, but it adds up over time. Moreover, the new $60 plan appears to be a 15GB plan, not a 10GB plan with bonus data tacked on.

Along with the $60/15GB plan, Virgin upped the price of its 8GB plan from $52/mo to $55/mo. Otherwise, the plan remains unchanged.

Virgin Plus plans as of Feb. 24, 2022.

What’s particularly frustrating about these changes is these plans are effectively the only options for customers who want to get a phone from Virgin. The provider offers several ‘Starter’ plans with less data and lower monthly costs, but those plans have caps on the data speed and aren’t available unless customers bring their own device.

As for the other flanker brands, Koodo’s plans remained unchanged at the time of publication. Rogers’ Fido, however, also updated its plans with more expensive options — you can read more here.

Virgin’s plans can be found here.

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Mobile Syrup

Covenant House Toronto’s Main Mission virtual gaming fundraiser starts March 7

Covenant House Toronto is back with round two of its Main Mission fundraising initiative.

For those who don’t know, Covenant House is Canada’s largest non-profit organization that helps homeless, trafficked and at-risk youth. They assist an average of 280 people a day, serve 2,500 nutritious meals per week, and are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for those who need assistance.

Its Main Mission fundraising initiative is a virtual gaming event that will put together professional gamers, content creators, casual streamers, and their fans to help raise funds and awareness for homeless youth, sex trafficking survivors and those at risk.

The virtual event starts on March 7th and runs until April 1st, and concludes with a 12-hour “live gaming stream-a-thon” on April 2nd which will feature notable gamers and celebrity guests.

“We are very excited to once again hold a gaming-based fundraising event that has a real mission – to support youth who are homeless or trafficked,” said Mark Aston, executive director, Covenant House Toronto. “Main Mission is an opportunity for us to showcase the passion and ingenuity that the gaming community and gaming industry has for charitable causes like ours while doing what they love.”

You too can get involved in the community initiative by using Main Mission’s resources and assets to lead your own fundraising efforts for the cause. Check out this streamer toolkit provided by the Main Mission to set up your own fundraiser stream.

Similar to the last event, Main Mission’s goal is to raise $100,000, and there is no fundraising minimum to participate in the initiative. However, anyone who raises over $250 will receive Main Mission apparel as a commemorative gesture.

So far, the event has raised $12,808, so over 10 percent of the goal has been raised. You can help the Covenant House Toronto reach its goal and empower youth by registering or donating here.

Image credit: Main Mission

Source: Covenant House Toronto

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Mobile Syrup

Elden Ring competition in U.K. grants you the official title of Elden Lord

This competition isn’t available for Canadians, but it’s interesting, nonetheless. Elden Ring’s publisher Bandai Namco is hosting a contest in Scotland where 100 winners will be rewarded with titles and a small patch of land.

Winners will get the title Elden Lord or Elden Lady, which isn’t the same as an official hereditary title but can be used on legal documents. Now, the land for these Elden Lords and Ladies will be a piece of land at the Highland Titles Nature Reserve near Glencoe in Scotland. Winners will be able to walk on their land, but that’s practically it.

If you’re a reader in the U.K. or Ireland, to enter the contest, you need to email eldenlord@bandainamcoent.eu and explain why you’re deserving of being part of the Elden Royalty. Additionally, the competition is available until March 11th.

Now for our Canadian readers, Elden Ring releases on February 25th and is available for PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4 and PS5. You can expect our full review and more in the coming days.

Source: VGC

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Mobile Syrup

First two episodes of Dolly Patron and James Patterson’s ‘Run, Rose, Run’ bookcast now available on Spotify

Spotify has released the first two episodes of what it’s calling a ‘bookcast,’ with Dolly Parton and James Patterson’s novel Run, Rose, Run at the center of it.

The concept combines storytelling from the novel the two co-wrote and infuses it with sound elements and original music from Parton to provide the listener with an immersive and unique audio experience.

The first two episodes of Run, Rose, Run Bookcast were released earlier today, Wednesday, February 23rd on Spotify, with the rest of the episodes following suit on March 7th, the day the novel comes out.

Image credit: Spotify

“We are honoured to partner with Dolly Parton and James Patterson on Run, Rose, Run, a trailblazing audio experience from two of the world’s most prolific creators that combines Spotify’s core elements — music and spoken audio,” said Dawn Ostroff, Spotify’s chief content and advertising business officer, in a recent statement. “This unique audio experience exemplifies the limitless potential of audio and Spotify’s commitment to partnering with exceptional creative talent on new innovative formats.”

The fictional novel follows the story of an aspiring female musician who moves to Nashville to pursue her dreams, but she carries a “brutal secret” that threatens the “future she’s trying to build.”

This comes soon after the Joe Rogan debacle that saw multiple artists, including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, India Arie, Graham Nash, Nils Lofgren, requesting the removal of their music from Spotify, stating that the service doesn’t curb the COVID-19 misinformation originating from the UFC commentator’s podcast.

We’re not sure if that will, in turn, result in muted growth for the new ‘bookcast’ concept of infusing storytelling and music or not. Regardless, I think bringing the likes of Patterson and Parton to the platform with a new product is sure to bring back some lost listeners.

You can listen to the first two episodes of the Run, Rose, Run bookcast below or on Spotify.

Source: Spotify

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Mobile Syrup

Twitch’s new program aims to help streamers earn a reliable monthly income

Amazon-owned Twitch is introducing its new Ads Incentive Program (AIP, pronounced ape) that allows streamers to continue what they love doing while earning a “predictable monthly income.”

It’s worth noting that the new program is only available to qualifying affiliate or partner streamers. Said streamers can expect to receive an incentive offer from Twitch, laying out information about the different payouts they are eligible for, which depends on the number of ads run per hour and total hours streamed.

“We’ve created the Ads Incentive Program for two crucial reasons: reliable and predictable income is important for streamers, and managing ads can be a pain that takes time away from creating content,” reads Twitch’s blog about the new program.

According to Twitch’s example, if you run two minutes of ads per hour while streaming, and stream for a total of 40 hours per month, you earn $100. Similarly, if you run four minutes of ads per hour, and stream for a total of 40 hours per month, you earn $500. Check out the image below for more examples:

Additionally, since the program is built on top of Ads Manager, streamers can set their ad schedule and continue streaming without worrying about airing the ads at set times. “We want to free creators from additional management responsibilities so you can focus on doing what you love with the community you love,” reads Twitch’s blog post.

Streamers can earn additional money at their standard rate if they stream for more than the requisite amount of hours, and if a creator chooses not to participate in AIP, Twitch will give them a prorated payment depending on the hours streamed.

Originally, streamers were paid on the basis of their viewership (higher amount of people viewing ads = higher pay for the streamer). However, the new program aims to allow streamers to continue streaming consistently while not having to worry too much about the viewership.

If you’re a Twitch streamer and want to check if you qualify for the new program, head to the Ads Manager section in your Creator Dashboard or learn more about AIP here.

Image credit: Twitch

Source: Twitch

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Mobile Syrup

Stingray to debut new TikTok Radio in Canada and the United States

Montreal, Quebec-based Stingray Music has announced a partnership with short video platform TikTok to launch a new TikTok radio service on its platform.

The first-of-its-kind radio service will expose Stingray users access to top music that is trending on TikTok. “Listeners will enjoy hearing music the TikTok community loves, including viral hits, throwbacks, and songs from the next generation of rising stars,” reads Stingray’s release about the new addition.

In addition, a TikTok Radio playlist will be offered via the Air Canada In-Flight Entertainment system whenever you’re flying with Air Canada.

Image credit: Stingray

The radio service is live for Stingray users in the United States starting today, whereas Canadian users would need to wait until tomorrow, Thursday, February 24th.

“TikTok is redefining the way that fans discover and rediscover music, and this collaboration with Stingray will allow more people to tap into the culture and trends that start on our platform,” said Dan Page, head of global business development, TikTok.

The radio service will be refreshed multiple times per week to feature the most used and played songs on TikTok, along with songs from ‘Top of the Week,’ ‘Top of the Year’ and ‘Top New Songs’ charts.

Additionally, if you have the Stingray TV Music Video app (free for subscribers) you’ll be able to tune in to the TikTok Radio playlist, which will also feature music videos from current trending TikTok songs.

Stingray is a free-to-use music streaming app that is available to download on iOS, Android, the web and through select TV providers. You can choose to subscribe to Stingray Premium and get access to superior audio quality, unlimited skips, family account sharing and no ads for $0.99/month for the first three months and $3.99/month thereafter.

Image credit: Stingray Music

Source: Stingray

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Mobile Syrup

Amazon’s home security robot Astro also delivers beer

Amazon’s Wall-E-looking Astro robot that is touted as a helpful tool for taking care of aging family members, as a smart home display and a home security robot, has started making its way to people’s homes.

Astro is equipped with a camera that scans your home to look for intruders, family members and your home’s overall architecture and layout. The same camera is also used for video calls along with a built-in speaker that is Alexa-enabled.

The robot, which is available through an invite-only program, started shipping back in November. However, videos of people using it have only recently started emerging.

This recent video uploaded by ‘Bob Rekieta‘ on YouTube (seen below) shows the Amazon Astro accepting a command and fulfilling it, albeit ungracefully.

Astro is tasked to deliver a beer — which is already in its built-in cup holder — to its human owner ‘Celeste.’ The robot takes a little while to register the command, but then swivels around to look for its human. Upon finally identifying ‘Celeste,’ Astro rushes towards her with the words “Hi Celeste” visible front and centre on its scree.. um.. face.

While the process of Astro fulfilling commands does look intriguing, there are some issues that will deter people from welcoming the Amazon robot to their house.

According to a September story by The Verge (covered by MobileSyrup), leaked documents that reportedly come from Amazon employees working on Astro claim it’s a disaster that’s not ready to be released. The report also takes into account a second employee’s statement, who says that Astro is terrible and that it’s absurd to think of it as an elder care device.

A separate September report from Vice states that Astro is not very sturdy and that a few of its test devices have already broken. There are also reports claiming that the device isn’t great at identifying people and will follow around anyone it thinks is an intruder.

While there haven’t been any complaints regarding Astro flinging itself off stairs like everyone initially thought, I also haven’t seen videos where the Astro encounters stairs, so we’re not sure how the robot will behave when it eventually does encounter steps.

The Amazon Astro is available invite-only in the United States and costs $1,449.99 (roughly $1,844.79).

Via: The Verge