There have been rumours for a while now that Google’s Pixel 5 ‘flagship’ wasn’t supposed to launch with the mid-range Snapdragon 765G like it did. However, according to a new video from Marques Brownlee (MKBHD on YouTube), the Pixel 5 was actually supposed to ship with Google’s Tensor processor.
Brownlee dropped a massive 30+ minute video going back over every Nexus and Pixel phone. Towards the end of that video (at 29:41, to be precise), Brownlee says he’s heard from “people at Google” that Tensor was supposed to launch in the Pixel 5. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing supply chain disruptions upended that plan. Google switched to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765G at the last moment.
Android Authority, which first covered Brownlee’s comments, noted that it’s unclear whether the Pixel 5 Tensor chip was the same as what’s now in the Pixel 6. Android Police, however, reports that leaks indicate the Pixel 5 Tensor was slightly different than what launched in the Pixel 6.
Regardless, it’s interesting to think about how a Tensor-equipped Pixel 5 may have shaken things up for Google. Although the Pixel 5 was generally considered a good phone, its Snapdragon 765G made it difficult to call a flagship. In some ways, the Pixel 6 line appears to be completely opposite to the Pixel 5, forgoing things like a small size option, a unique, textured backplate and other little features in favour of a more generic “premium flagship” glass sandwich.
If you’re interested, you can check out Brownlee’s full Nexus/Pixel video here.
Netflix’s long-awaited push into video games officially kicked off on November 3rd with Card Blast,Shooting Hoops,Stranger Things: 1984,Stranger Things 3 and Teeter Up releasing on Android. Subsequently, the same titles rolled out on iOS on November 9th. Now, two more games have been added to the list with today’s update, as reported by TechCrunch.
First up is Bowling Ballers, an endless runner from developer Frosty Pop. The game task you with smashing into as many bowling pins as possible to achieve high scores.
The second game coming to the platform might ring a bell. 2017-released racing title Asphalt Xtreme, which was shut down in September, saw its license taken over by Netflix. Now, the second spinoff from the Asphalt series is rolling out to users worldwide.
Additionally, Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story, a new game in Riot’s popular League of Legends universe, has also been confirmed for Netflix Games. The rhythm title will cost $12.99 CAD on Steam and Nintendo Switch, but Netflix members will be able to download and play the game at no additional cost.
So far, Netflix Games is meant to be a small bonus perk to an existing Netflix subscription, offering a handful of titles that don’t feature in-app purchases or ads.
Santa Clara, CA / USA – March 26, 2019: Cisco Systems, Inc, an American technology office in the Silicon Valley, develops, manufactures networking hardware, telecommunication equipment
Canadian high schoolers will now have the opportunity to take part in the largest cybersecurity education program in the country.
This is possible through a partnership between Cisco Canada and STEM Fellowship.
The funds will assist 40,000 high school students in the cybersecurity classroom training program (CCTP), focusing on digital skills and safety knowledge by combining it with subjects like math, business, and social studies.
Business teachers, for example, can access specific content that would show what an attack on digital businesses looks like, teaching students the ways to protect organizations from a cyberattack like this.
Courses involving art and culture will take a look at electronic ticketing fraud and health courses might examine fitness information online, distinguishing between evidence-driven data and forgery.
A 2020 report by Statistics Canada shows only one-third of students are taught how to detect phishing or scams online.
“An understanding of cybersecurity and digital threats has never been more pressing, yet topics of cybersecurity and active digital citizenship are missing from high school curriculums. The Cybersecurity Classroom Training Program gives students a solid foundation in cybersecurity,” Dr. Sacha Noukhovitch, president of STEM Fellowship, said in a press release.
The program also hopes to inspire students to pursue careers in IT and cybersecurity.
Teachers can gain free access to the program by emailing cctp@stemfellowship.org.
MobileSyrup asked Cisco to provide more information on the program and will update when a response is available.
Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry and Canada’s largest software-as-a-service accelerator, L-Spark, announced a third phase of their joint accelerate program.
The BlackBerry x L-Spark accelerator aims to grow Canadian technology companies focused on connected vehicle solutions. The third phase follows successful first and second cohorts. Once again, the accelerator will help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) grow their businesses and bring new products to market with BlackBerry’s QNX technology.
However, new this time around is that selected companies will gain access to BlackBerry’s Intelligent Vehicle Data Platform, BlackBerry IVY. BlackBerry announced IVY in December 2020 as part of a multi-year global agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS). “IVY is a vehicle first, cloud connected software platform that presents vehicle data in a normalized format” and that data can be fed into applications on-vehicle and in the cloud.
Applications will stay open until March 7th, 2022. Then, BlackBerry and L-Spark will host a selection day where they will choose up to six companies to join the third cohort of the program.
Trying to send flowers to loved ones this holiday season? There is a new player in the market that you’re already accustomed to.
Uber Eats is partnering with Florists’ Transworld Delivery (FTD) to enable on-demand flower delivery to clients all across Canada through FTD’s affiliate ProFlowers.
Launching tomorrow, November 24th, in Ontario, Alberta, BC, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Quebec, users would be able to order flowers, balloons and more from a network of 200 local florists.
“We are thrilled to partner with FTD to provide a quick and convenient way for Canadians across the country to access fresh bouquets and items to gift loved ones – just in time for the holiday season,” said Lola Kassim, head of delivery for Uber. “By pairing their expertise with our best-in-class technology, we’re able to support a network of 200 local florists and extend on-demand flower delivery to customers nationwide.”
To access the new feature, open the Uber Eats app on November 24th and you’ll see a new flower icon. Tap the new icon and select one of the numerous ProFlowers stores and proceed to order like you regularly would with Uber Eats.
“We’re excited to continue our partnership with Uber Eats and offer our florist partners in Canada opportunities to grow their customer base,” said Charlie Cole, CEO of FTD. “As we continue FTD’s evolution, we’re hyper-focused on how we can modernize the business to better support our florists and customers through partnerships like Uber Eats that allow orders to flow directly into Mercury HQ, our next-gen POS system.”
To celebrate the launch, Uber Eats is offering $10 off on flower orders over $50.
Construction companies PCL and Pomerleau Construction are teaming up with Intel, Microsoft and internet-of-thing (IoT) company Latium to bring innovation to construction in Canada. To start, the two construction companies and three tech companies brought Boston Dynamics’ ‘Spot’ robot dog to Cadillac Fairview’s 160 Front Street project in Toronto.
Spot first appeared on a Pomerlau site in Montreal back in 2019, and now PCL will send it to a couple of job sites to further study how Spot can help improve workflows.
While on job sites, Spot will sport several add-on technologies, all of which feed data into Latium’s ‘Job Site Insights’ smart construction platform. For example, Spot will have 360-degree cameras, a Leica RTC360 laser scanner, Latium’s environmental air quality sensors, GPS sensors and more.
Additionally, Latium enabled Spot’s data to be aggregated and displayed “on a single pane of glass,” which appears to mean tablets judging by the below video. That allows job site personnel to view real-time information and quickly respond to changing job site conditions and events. There’s a strong safety aspect too, with Spot able to get into dangerous or hard-to-reach spaces.
The Spot tests could lead construction companies to invest in robotics and other technology to help modernize job sites, improve worker safety and more.
Combining Skyrim and Dark Souls 3-like gameplay, Elden Ring reinvents the Souls formula, resulting in one of the most engaging role-playing games I’ve ever played, even if it was only for a short while.
The game is a spiritual successor to the Dark Souls series and is set in a mythical world full of dilapidated creatures, knights, dragons and more. I was able to hop onto the FromSoftware’s Closed Network Test from November 12th to 15th and played the title for roughly 10-12 hours.
This was an excellent opportunity to try out Elden Ring, and since it was so fun, it’s going to be tough to wait until February 2022 to fully experience ‘The Lands Between.’
The Lands Between
Elden Ring’s setting is beautiful and is vastly different than anything FromSoftware has released in the past. As soon as you leave the tutorial area, the world of Limgrave greets you with creatures running around, enemies, friendly NPCs and even hidden secrets.
The test allowed players to select from one of five pre-made characters, but when the game officially launches, you’ll be able to design a character and pick from 10 classes. After moving through the tutorial area, you’ll notice a light that’s reminiscent of the bonfires from previous Dark Souls games. The lights, called ‘Sites of Grace,’ are where you level up, pick your spells, pass the time (there’s a day and night cycle) and select your ‘Ashes of War’ (more on this later).
“It sometimes felt like I was playing Skyrim with Dark Souls combat, and in other instances, Elden Ring felt like Dark Souls with Souls-like action inside of Skryim.”
A little past the first Site of Grace, I encountered a knight-looking character on horseback, which, to my surprise, is a boss. Facing a boss roaming around the world is entirely different from previous Souls-like titles.
Another exciting event that took place was a dragon encounter. While traversing the world, a dragon flew over my head and landed in front of me, taking out several NPCs. Even though this boss wasn’t tied to a specific dungeon, the dragon ended up being the most challenging enemy in the closed network test. Thankfully, you can escape if you don’t think you’re ready to fight it.
Another interesting thing I encountered was a character pretending to be a tree, several knights on horseback protecting a travelling caravan and a mysterious platform that teleported me into the middle of a boss fight. These experiences were fascinating to run into with the context of a Souls-like title in mind, and I’m sure I’ll run into several more in the full version of the game.
Elden Ring also features stealth elements, which help a lot when taking out an enemy camp one foe at a time.
And, as you’ve likely seen in screenshots, you can travel around Elden Ring‘s world on horseback, which is unique to a Souls-like title. Fighting battles from a horse against other foes that are also on horseback is especially entertaining.
Pumpkin Head
Speaking of the flying dragon Agneel, the closed network test for Elden Ring featured 11 bosses and a couple of powerful enemies to fight. They ranged from knights, a dragon, a weird beast-like creature, an odd feline-dog thing and a creature with a pumpkin head. I enjoyed seeing the different bosses that the game offered, and I am surprised how many fit into the map’s relatively small closed network test portion. While some roamed around in their designated area and remained visible from a fair distance, most were found in dungeons.
What will be interesting moving forward is if FromSoftware can continue to offer a wide variety of boss types. For example, we know that there are two dragon bosses, as seen in the trailer and closed network test, but the two dragons look so different in aesthetic and abilities that I don’t mind this.
During the network test, I was a magic user like I am in every souls-like game. Based on my experience, magic is far improved and allows me to take down bosses better — although not easily — especially on horseback.
A game within a game
Within the Elden Ring closed network test, most bosses are in dungeons, including a Beast’s Den, a Miner’s Cave, Catacombs and more. The dungeons are filled with enemies, traps and surprises, but importantly, most end with a boss battle. I enjoyed the dungeon elements of Elden Ring because those are the parts of the game that feel the most like Dark Souls. I fell prey to the enemies and traps repeatedly until I learned from my mistakes and made it through.
It’s also important to point out that you don’t need to go into any of these dungeons. They’re entirely optional, but you don’t get access to cool weapons, spells, and Ashes of War without exploring dungeons. The game encourages you to explore dungeons to improve your character, and while they’re gruelling, it’s for the best.
The closed network test also offered access to a ‘Legacy Dungeon.’ In these areas, you’ll fight Demigods, the most powerful bosses in different regions of the game. While I didn’t get to fight the Demigod in the network test, I was able to explore what seemed like a decent amount of the Legacy Dungeon before receiving a message that told me the network test was over.
In this Legacy Dungeon, called ‘Stormveil Castle,’ I was given two paths by a character. An NPC said I could either go straight through a gate or go around the quiet way. I, at first, decided to go through the quiet way that led to bird-like enemies with swords on their talons, enemies that could use a Weapon Art and a gross-looking miniboss character that took me multiple attempts to take down.
This area also offered spells and a key that would lead to the next part of Stormveil Castle. After beating the miniboss, I decided to try and go the other way. I was met with ballistic arrows that pierced my character’s body. Eventually, after making it through this, another miniboss caught me off guard and destroyed me. After a few more tries, I finished this path as well.
The point is, this intertwining, extremely tough dungeon reminded me so much of the gruelling levels featured in Dark Souls and Demon Souls. I found the title so interesting, as sometimes it felt like I was playing Skyrim with Dark Souls combat, and in other instances, Elden Ring felt like Dark Souls with the appropriate Souls-like action inside of Skryim.
Ashes of War
In Dark Souls 3, the player can find various weapons that feature abilities called ‘Weapon Arts.’ These are activated whenever you hold your weapon with both hands or forego the usage of a shield. For the most part, Weapon Arts are exclusive to individual weapons, such as my Dragonslayer Swordspear’s ‘Falling Bolt’ Weapon Art that could call down a lightning bolt on an enemy. However, in Elden Ring, there are now ‘Ashes of War.’
‘Ashes of War’ are different from Weapon Arts because, for the most part, they aren’t unique to specific weapons. For instance, Falling Bolt in Dark Souls 3 was only available with the boss weapon ‘Dragonslayer SwordSpear;’ however, in Elden Ring, you can pick up the Ashes of War ‘Thunderbolt’ that calls down a lightning bolt on an enemy and apply it to any melee weapon.
You can also decide whether or not you want your weapon to do lightning damage or stick to its original damage type. This matters as some enemies are more susceptible to different types of damage. Some weapons come with their own ‘Ashes of War’ that can’t be found elsewhere, but for the most part, they’re interchangeable, and I enjoyed this flexibility.
Another new feature in EldenRing is ‘Spirit Summons.’ To summon a Spirit, you need to find its ‘Spirit-Caller’s Ashes .’ Once you locate them, the Spirit can come to your side in battle. Spirits are typically enemies you’ve seen or will see in the wild. This helped when fighting brutal battles, but they have a life bar and can be made quick work of.
I had the strongest Spirit helping me with the dragon fight, and it made no difference at all as the dragon quickly took care of it. I’m not saying Spirits aren’t helpful — they made certain dungeon bosses easier — but many of the dungeons only feature one ‘Site of Grace.’ This means that if you die, you annoyingly get brought back to the beginning of the dungeon. Most of the Spirits I encountered were human-like, but I also ran into a nearly immobile jellyfish that squirted poison at enemies.
To balance things out, you won’t be able to use Spirits when you’re playing co-op, and you can only use them in more challenging areas of Elden Ring. Usually, you’ll see a little Spirit icon on the left-hand of your screen, and that’s how you know you can use your Spirit summonings. You can also use only one at a time, and they take a considerable about of your magic bar to summon.
February 25th
Elden Ring was recently delayed from January 21st to February 25th, and the delay breaks my heart. I thought playing the Closed Network Test would soothe my longing for the game, but that’s not the case whatsoever. In fact, I now want to play it so much more.
Elden Ring is the perfect game for Souls fans, with profound lore created by Game of Throne’s George R.R. Martin, a world filled with surprises and creatures, cool spells to try out, Spirits to collect and Ashes of War to master; I’m incredibly excited.
FromSoftware’s Elden Ring will launch on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X on February 25th.
Executives from various media groups across the country met in a Gatineau boardroom to continue the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) hearing into the merger of Rogers and Shaw.
The day focused on interveners, organizations raising various issues with the proposed merger.
Telus has been vocal about their opposition since day one. At the hearing, executives asked the CRTC multiple times not to approve the merger, targeting Rogers regarding the promises made during its presentation the day prior.
Stephen Schmidt, vice president of telecom policy at Telus, said Rogers failed to understand the harms this merger creates, including reducing competition and consumer choice. The scale the company will cover alone will give Rogers access to 47 percent of subscribers using the English language, and their network would pass 80 percent of English homes.
Telus also argues the scale will allow Rogers to determine what program would be available for English language consumers, whether or not they’re a Rogers customer, and secure exclusive foreign content.
The company says that the media giant failed to show the merger is in the best interests of Canadians and that the best proposal possible was presented.
Schmidt said the principle on non-exclusivity of programming was what the Canadian broadcasting system was built on to create “healthy competition.” But if approved, the merger will change that and give Rogers the ability to be the only provider to offer specific content and give consumers no other option but to subscribe to them.
“Denial of the application is the only response that is proportionate to the concerns that it raises,” Schmidt said.
The Global News fiasco
Another issue this merger creates is the funding associated with the Global News network that runs under Corus Entertainment. Shaw directs roughly $13 million towards Corus every year because of a federal rule that asks broadcaster distributors to redirect five percent of revenue towards Canadian content and local news.
Zainul Mawji, executive vice president of home solutions at Telus, said Rogers should continue to provide this funding, over redirecting it to its network, CityTV, because many Western Canadians rely on the network. She shared CityTV has roughly one percent viewership and Global about 20 percent.
Lecia Simpson, a director at Telus, said Corus might have to turn to the independent local news fund if the funding is pulled. $13 million is more than half of what the fund has, she shared.
“Further having listened yesterday to Rogers and response to their questions, or the questions you posed to them, there were no guarantees made, no actual firm commitments on how they would be spending the $13 million,” Simpson said.
Need for safeguards
The executives say the current safeguards offered aren’t enough, and Rogers hasn’t proposed any of their own, a concern raised by many others as well.
“Denial of the application is the only response that is proportionate to the concerns that it raises,” Stephen Schmidt, vice president of telecom policy, Telus
The Canadian Communication System Alliances represents dozens of broadcasting and telecommunications providers, specifically in rural and remote areas. Representatives raised concerns the merger could impact the investments and affordability of the services they offer. While they were clear to note they do not oppose the transaction, they say it will impact many people unless safeguards are implemented.
“We do not believe that the safeguards in your current toolbox are adequate to do the job. And we fear that, even if you impose the right safeguards, you will not adequately and effectively enforce them. Unfortunately, our own experience says that you won’t,” Jay Thomson, the organization’s CEO, said to the panel of CRTC representatives.
The Independent Broadcast Group also raised similar issues.
“Without clear enforceable safeguards, this transaction will make things much worse – if it can be – for independents. A combined Rogers-Shaw entity will set the market and, based on their current approach to independent services, it is going to be a choppy ride. The situation for many, if not most of us, is dire,” Brad Danks, CEO of OUTtv and OMG Media Group, said.
Blue Ant Media, the parent company of MobileSyrup, has also raised an intervention with the merger.
Executives from Rogers were on hand Monday and said the merger would be the best for Canadians. On behalf of Shaw, representatives from Rogers will be back Friday to answer questions raised throughout the week.
If you’re looking for a great deal this Black Friday, the audio sale at Best Buy has you covered.
As I write this, I have a pair of headphones on blasting music to drown out the noise of my neighbours making what must be the loudest dinner in the history of humankind. I never knew so many ingredients could be blended, mixed, and diced. It’s times like this that I love switching over to my wireless noise-cancelling headphones to block out the world entirely.
If you’re like me and you need a good pair of headphones — or Bluetooth speaker — now’s the time. Best Buy has savings up to 60% off their audio gear for Black Friday.
We’ve curated a list of the best deals below to get you the best savings.
Let us know in the comments if you manage to snag any great deals!
MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships and publishes sponsored posts. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though MobileSyrup may earn a commission on purchases made via these links.
Spotify has finally replaced its giant shuffle button with a play button on album pages in its app. If you want to thank anyone for this, you can thank Adele.
The British superstar asked the streaming service for the change, and I assume since her album is making Spotify tons of money, it complied. Notably, Adele’s last album, 25, was one of the most popular albums of the year and when it launched, it wasn’t even on streaming services.
This was the only request I had in our ever changing industry! We don’t create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason. Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended. Thank you Spotify for listening 🍷♥️ https://t.co/XWlykhqxAy
