Author: Mobile Syrup

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Mobile Syrup

Nintendo’s Gold Points Special Offer offers double Gold Points on select digital games

Nintendo’s website is offering a variety of deals to Canadians. Some of the offers include a Valentine’s Day Sale, an Unpacking Sale, a Cyber Shadow Sale, and most importantly, a ‘Gold Points Special Offer.’

Nintendo’s ‘Gold Points Special Offer,’ allows users to earn double the Gold Points on select digital games, which means you can earn 10 percent in Gold points on select digital games. These titles include Metroid Dread, Smash Bros Ultimate, New Pokémon Snap and more.

Ubisoft’s Valentine’s Day Sale runs until February 9th

You can find the other deals below:

Ghost n Goblins Resurrections is $26.39, was $39.99 and is on sale until February 7th. Cyber-Shadow one Year Anniversary Sale is offering the title for $17.49 and normally $24.99. Unpacking is now $21.27 but returns to its regular price of $26.59 on February 7th.

Source: Nintendo Via: RedFlagDeals

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Mobile Syrup

CRTC chair Ian Scott speaks on controversial meeting with Bell CEO for the first time

Calls to resign have inundated Ian Scott for years. They intensified when he met with Bell Media CEO Mirko Bibic at an Ottawa pub in December 2019.

The meeting came months after the August 2019 decision by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), chaired by Scott, that internet rates were high and had to go down. But soon after, the CRTC backtracked after receiving appeals from larger telecom companies. This led many to accuse the broadcast and communications watchdog of bias.

Scott’s meeting with Bibic, who was the company’s chief operating officer at the time, only added fuel to the fire.

TekSavvy and VMedia were two companies that called on Scott to resign, sighting Scott’s bias. They pointed out Scott previously worked as a lobbyist for Telus.

More than two years after the meeting, Scott has spoken out defending his actions.

“The simple answer is that nothing inappropriate was done,” he told the Toronto Star in an interview. “I went for a beer with someone I have known for years….And it ended up he chose to address a broadcasting issue a little of what Bell might be doing in the future.”

Scott told the publication Bibic recorded the conversation in the lobbyist registration because the two talked about business, and it remained on his agenda. “No rule was ever broken.”

Speaking on the CRTC’s decision to reverse the ruling on wholesale rates, Scott said he was just one of nine votes on the panel, and he holds no additional weight as the chair.

“We have a process that allows parties who believe we have made a mistake to apply for a review. That’s what happened. They said we got it wrong. We went back and redid our analysis, and we found errors. We corrected the errors, which resulted in different rates,” Scott told The Star.

The ruling, which means smaller providers have to pay millions to larger telecom companies to access their network, is currently being appealed.

Source: Toronto Star

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Mobile Syrup

Pixel 6 helped Google set an ‘all-time quarterly sales record’

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, dropped its Q4 2021 earnings Tuesday evening. The numbers were impressive as usual, with 41 percent year-over-year growth. You can read all that here if you want. What’s more impressive, however, is that the Pixel 6 apparently set an all-time quarterly sales record.

Now, there are a few caveats here before we dig in. First, Google doesn’t break out specific numbers for hardware. Instead, as Android Police notes, the hardware is included in ‘Google Services,’ which covers Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Search, Google Play, and YouTube. In other words, there are a lot of big money makers in there for Google and no real way to estimate how much of that was from the Pixel line, or even the Pixel 6 specifically.

With that in mind, let’s look at what Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in the Q4 2021 earnings call:

“In Q4, we set all all-time quarterly sales record for Pixel. This came in spite of an extremely challenging supply-chain environment. The response from Pixel 6 from our customers and carrier partners was incredibly positive.”

Pichai also attributed some of the Pixel 6’s success to new artificial intelligence (AI) features, such as the new real-time translation tool. You can listen to the whole earnings call here.

While we can’t necessarily back up that statement with numbers (yet), Android Police did note that the Google Services segment is up, reporting over $69 (heh, nice) billion USD (about $87.5 billion CAD) in revenue in Q4. In 2020, the same segment reported $52.8 billion (roughly $66.99 billion CAD (heh, double nice)).

Considering Google launches Pixel flagships in the fall, usually around October or November, the company’s Q4 results usually include Pixel launch sales (even if we don’t get the exact numbers). And while I doubt that all of the difference between Q4 2021 and Q4 2020 came from Pixel 6 sales, we can likely attribute some of that increase to sales.

With all that in mind, it seems the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are proving popular with customers. Considering the various supply issues, software problems, and myriad other concerns with the phones, the sales record is even more impressive. Hopefully this marks a change for Google, which has previously struggled with its smartphone line.

Source: Android Police

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Mobile Syrup

Former Journey, Spider-Man, Skyrim devs form new studio

A team of gaming industry veterans has formed a new studio called Gardens.

Based primarily in Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles, but functioning as a fully remote studio, Gardens was founded by Chris Bell (Journey), Lexie Dostal (Dustforce) and Stephen Bell (What Remains of Edith Finch). Other members of the team, meanwhile, have worked on the likes of Marvel’s Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank (lead artist Ryan Benno), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (principal engineer Rose Dale) and The Hobbit (art director Leighton Milne)

In a press release, Gardens described the types of games it aims to make, and they certainly sound in line with the likes of Journey.

“These artfully-crafted, living environments will be designed to foster rich multiplayer interactions while relying on care by their communities in order to thrive,” said Gardens of its planned game worlds. “They are games that aspire to cultivate lasting friendships (like Journey, Sky, or Way before them) while encouraging players to be considerate of each other and the world they inhabit together.”

The studio is currently hiring for a number of positions — those interested in applying can do so here.

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Mobile Syrup

Starlink Premium arrives with stronger antenna for extreme weather

Waking me from a dead sleep like a nightmare – An Elon Musk tweet has surfaced announcing a new Starlink high-performance antenna and Premium package.

The new low-earth-orbit satellite internet option web page claims that speeds range between 150-500 Mbps, with latency around 20-40ms. It further mentions that this could be a good option for businesses. The regular Starlink dish is only rated for around 100-200 Mbps and similar latency on Starlink’s website.

Starlink Premium is more than just a stronger antenna with faster speeds. It also comes with 24/7 support, a detachable 23-metre power-over-ethernet cable and a 1.8-metre power cable. Both of these cables are slightly shorter than what comes with the standard ‘Circular’ Starlink pack, but since the new model has a detachable wire, you can buy longer lengths in the Starlink Shop. As far as I can tell, the shop is only available to people with Starlink accounts, so at this time, we’re unsure of how much it costs.

The new unit is expected to begin shipping to customers sometime in Q2 2022.

As for the cost of the new dish itself. Starlink Premium is not cheap:

  • Deposit – $635 CAD
  • Hardware – $3,1700 CAD
  • Service – $635/month
  • Shipping & Handling $65
  • Est tax – $420
  • Total ——— $4,925

If you have a remote business and need internet, I guess the upfront cost of this is something you could swallow, but it’s incredibly expensive for regular people. Even the ludicrously expensive $635 per month for data service targets this at businesses, not families, which is disappointing.

Regular people instead are pushed towards the Circular dish, which costs:

  • Hardware – $650
  • Service – $130/month
  • Shipping & Handling – $65
  • Est. Tax – $92.82
  • Total ———– $937.82

It should also be noted that Starlink isn’t available everywhere yet, so you’ll need to have your address approved before your unit will ship to you. Furthering that, since the service uses satellites to beam internet down at Earth, some areas with heavy tree coverage can experience slow times and other issues when the satellites and the planet aren’t perfectly aligned.

The new Starlink Premium may solve that problem with its larger dish, but since it’s so expensive, it likely won’t be helping many existing Starlink owners.

If you’re interested in how Starlink performs, there is an interesting speed test/comparison that a community of owners has created on Reddit.

Source: Elon Musk, Starlink

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Mobile Syrup

Here’s what’s coming to Hayu in February 2022

Everyone knows about Netflix, Crave and Amazon Prime Video, but there are also other video streaming platforms in Canada for fans of niche content.

For example, NBC Universal’s Hayu is a reality TV subscription streaming service that gets new series monthly and continuing series weekly.

Below is everything coming to Hayu this month:

  • The Real Housewives of New Jersey: Season 12 (Wednesday, February 2nd)
  • The Bachelor Australia: Season 9 (Monday, February 7th)
  • The Greatest Dance: Seasons 1-2 (Friday, February 11th)
  • Below Deck Sailing Yacht: Season 3 (Thursday, February 22nd)
  • Shipmates: Season 1 (Friday, February 25th)
  • The Cabins: Season 2 (From Monday, February 28th)
  • Relatively Famous: Ranch Rules (Episodes Thursday)

Continuing Series

  • The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City (Mondays)
  • Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins (Mondays)
  • Snapped: season 30 (Mondays)
  • The Real Murders of Atlanta: Season 1 (Mondays)
  • Watch What Happens Live: season 18 (Tuesdays – Saturday)
  • Botched: Season 7 (Wednesdays)
  • The Real Housewives of Miami (Wednesdays)
  • The Real Housewives of Orange County: Season 16 (Thursdays)
  • Relatively Famous: Ranch Rules: Season 1 (Thursdays)
  • Twisted Killers: Season 1 (Fridays)
  • Killer Siblings: Season 3 (Saturdays)
  • Family Massacre: Season 1 (Saturdays)
  • The Real Housewives of New Jersey: Season 2 (Sundays)
  • New York Homicide: Season 1 (Sundays)

Hayu is available on Android and iOS, Apple TV, Shaw TV platform, and desktop.

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Mobile Syrup

Xbox has a bunch of deals right now, including Lunar New Year and Ubisoft sales

Xbox has kicked off multiple promotions on digital games, offering discounts on Asian-made games for Lunar New Year, titles from Ubisoft and Warner Bros., and more.

See below for some of the most notable deals. Note that all of the listed original Xbox and Xbox 360 games are playable on Xbox One/Xbox Series X and S via backward compatibility.

The full list of deals can be found here. Note that the sales are valid through February 7th, though individual promotions have different end dates.

Image credit: Game Mill

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Mobile Syrup

This Gucci AirPods Max case only costs $980

What does every AirPods Max owner need? Well, a Gucci case for their pricey wireless headphones, of course.

If owning a pair of $779 headphones doesn’t make you feel like a big enough baller, then this is the product for you. The $980 ‘Ophidia’ case looks very similar to the standard Smart Case that comes with the AirPods Max, only with the fashion brand’s iconic “GG” logo and design.

This also means that despite costing $980, the Gucci AirPods Max case still doesn’t protect the top of the AirPods.

The beige-coloured case also features a neoprene and viscose lining, a snap button that closes it and a lengthy leather strap that turns the AirPods Max Gucci case into a purse or handbag.

It’s currently unclear if the Ophidia case includes magnets that put the AirPods Max into sleep mode, which saves battery life and disconnects the wireless headphones from your device.

I like Apple’s AirPods and, to an extent, feel like they’re pretty close to worth their expensive price tag, but even I couldn’t swallow the price of this rather ridiculous-looking AirPods Max case. That said, I am hoping Paris Hilton or another notable influencer picks one up so I can see it in action in a paparazzi photo.

For more on Apple’s AirPods Max, check out my review of the headphones.

Gucci’s Ophidia AirPods Max case is available on the fashion brand’s website for $980.

Image credit: Gucci

Source: Gucci Via: 9to5Mac

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Mobile Syrup

Google’s One VPN service makes its way to iOS and iPadOS

Google’s One VPN service is now accessible on iPhone and iPad, after being available exclusively to Android users for over a year.

One VPN, which is currently only available with Google’s One’s “Premium” 2TB plan, gives the user access to an additional 2TB of Drive and Photos storage,  10 percent back in store credits when you spend money in the Google Store, extended Google expert support, and more member perks.

The plan costs $13.99 per month or $139.99 annually.

While iCloud offers its own ‘Private Relay’ service that helps protect user privacy when browsing online, Google’s One VPN service should be useful for those iOS or iPadOS users who are already paying for Google’s cloud storage.

Google’s One VPN service is available in 18 countries, including Canada, the United States, Spain, France, Germany and Mexico to name a few.

To access the service on an iPhone or iPad, simply subscribe to Google One’s 2TB “Premium” plan and download the Google One app on your device. Once in, log in with your credentials and tap the “Enable VPN” button to toggle the setting on, as seen in the GIF below:

You can share your Google One subscription with up to five members, and everyone will have access to the VPN service, though it’s worth noting that the VPN doesn’t allow you to change your location, so no unlocking shows on foreign streaming services for now.

Learn more about the service in Google’s blog post here.

Source: Google

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Mobile Syrup

Google’s parent company Alphabet earned $200 billion in annual revenue in 2021

Like most tech giants, Google’s parent company Alphabet seems to have faired very well amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The tech giant experienced 41 percent year-over-year growth to $257 billion USD (roughly $325 billion CAD), marking the first time Alphabet has surpassed the $200 billion USD mark (about $253 billion CAD). For context, Google earned $183 billion USD (roughly $232 billion CAD) in 2020.

In the fourth quarter, specifically, Google earned $75.3 billion USD (roughly $95 billion CAD), a 32 percent increase over the same period last year.

“Q4 saw ongoing strong growth in our advertising business, which helped millions of businesses thrive and find new customers, a quarterly sales record for our Pixel phones despite supply constraints, and our Cloud business continuing to grow strongly,” said Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai in a press release accompanying Alphabet’s earnings report. statement.

Google doesn’t break out its consumer devices like Pixel smartphones and Nest smart home devices into their own categories in its earnings reports, instead opting to lump them into its overall revenue.

However, YouTube earned $8.63 billion USD (about $10.9 billion CAD) and Cloud took home $5.54 billion USD (roughly $7 billion CAD). Alphabet’s ‘Other Bets’ division, which includes its automotive efforts under the Waymo brand, earned $181 million USD (about $229.6 million CAD) in revenue.

Source: Google