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Mobile Syrup

RCMP issues ‘challenge’ to small business to create AI tool for decrypting data

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) issued a press release via Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) announcing that it wants “a solution to access encrypted data for investigation purposes.”

Specifically, the RCMP wants an artificial intelligence (AI) decryption system “that can process the seized data files and generate specific word lists to try and access the encrypted material” because it’s “facing challenges in accessing encrypted data,” which is kind of the point of encrypting it.

Aside from the fact that handing law enforcement a tool to decrypt encrypted data is a terrible idea, the whole press release has a dystopian vibe to it. The release positions the request as a “challenge” for small businesses issued by ISED and led by the RCMP.

ISED gives small businesses until December 16th to “apply to the challenge.” Further, ISED notes that the government invites small businesses to come up with “a new innovative product, service or solution that answers a specific challenge” through the Innovative Solutions Canada program. Moreover, the release says that “winning” small businesses can receive up to $150,000 to refine research and development and, if they’re accepted into phase 2, receive up to $1 million to develop a working prototype.

“The government can then act as a first customer, helping these businesses commercialize their innovations, scale up their business and create good middle-class jobs across Canada,” the release reads.

So, the feds basically want a business to create an AI tool to decrypt encrypted data as part of a “challenge,” will provide funding for the research and development and wants to be the first customer for the tool. Neat.

Of course, there are plenty of other concerns about law enforcement agencies having such a tool. For one, there’s always the possibility of misuse or abuse of the tool, and there will almost certainly be privacy violations. Not that the RCMP really cares — when the Privacy Commissioner said the RCMP violated Canadians’ privacy using the Clearview AI facial recognition tool, the RCMP basically responded with “Actually, we didn’t!”

Perhaps of greater concern is the possibility that malicious actors could gain access to or steal the tool, which would be really bad for everyone.

And when you consider that are several alternate ways for law enforcement to work around encryption, it seems unnecessary to pursue such a dangerous, problematic tool.

Source: ISED

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Mobile Syrup

Nintendo now expects to ship 24 million Switch consoles this year

In its latest earnings report, Nintendo revealed a slightly lower Switch sales forecast, bringing the expected number down to 24 million from 25.5 million between April 2021 and March 2022.

The Japanese gaming giant says the sales expectations shift is due to “the extended impact of both COVID-19 and the global semiconductor shortage creates a state of continued uncertainty.” However, Nintendo isn’t revising its expected revenue and still expects its operating profit to be four percent higher than its previous prediction.

This past quarter, the Switch sold 3.83 million units between July and September. This is a stark decrease from the 6.86 million units the console sold during the same period last year. However, to be fair, the Switch’s sales last year were buoyed by the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company’s net sales for the year are down 18.9 percent to 624.2 billion yen ($6.8 billion CAD) compared to last year. Regarding sales projections, Nintendo says it plans to match its total revenue from the year prior at 1,600 billion yen ($17 billion CAD).

In total, Nintendo has sold 92.87 million Switch units since its release roughly four and a half years ago. The console is currently on track to surpass the Wii’s lifetime sales if it manages to hit its upcoming sale targets given the Wii sold 101.63 million units in total. The fact that the Switch OLED model was recently released should also help boost the handheld-home console hybrid’s overall sales.

Moving into the holiday season, Nintendo’s release schedule is relatively sparse. While Metroid Dread and Mario Party Superstars recently released, the only major releases coming up are the remakes of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. 

Source: Nintendo 

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Mobile Syrup

Tesla adds denser battery and more powerful motors into Model X

A few months ago, Tesla showed off a refreshed Model S and Model X. While the company was vague on what upgrades users could expect, most of the company’s spotlight seemed turned towards the fact that there it features a new yoke steering device and a gaming PC’s worth of power-packed inside.

Now, new EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) documents are out that show off powertrain upgrades, slight battery density improvements and the more powerful AC permanent magnet motors in the long-range trim, according to Electrek. While these changes are interesting, they don’t change the max range of the car.

The new battery features a density of 182.2 wh/kg instead of 165 wh/kg that was offered before. This extra density has also allowed Tesla to bring the overall energy capacity of the battery down to 100 kWh instead of 103 kWh. This has resulted in the car being 200lbs lighter which also helps offset the slightly smaller battery.

The company is also looking to add cloud syncing to your Tesla profile. This could mean that your map’s favourites, seat settings and other features tailored to each driver may be able to follow them from car to car. This will be especially useful to anyone that owns more than one.

This feature was first mentioned by Elon Musk on Twitter in 2017.

Source: Electrek, Engadget

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Mobile Syrup

Arlo announces new Go 2 security camera, capable of using LTE and Wi-Fi connection

Arlo has announced a new, more affordable entry in its security camera line. The Arlo Go 2 can connect via LTE and Wi-Fi to monitor your spaces remotely. The camera has made modest improvements in video quality while giving users more freedom in their connection.

The weather-resistant Arlo Go 2 is priced at $250 USD (roughly $311 CAD) and is positioned to be best used to monitor spaces like your cottage, boat dock, or any other remote property. The original Arlo Go model was priced higher at $400 USD (about $498 CAD) and had a limited connection due to not supporting LTE or Wi-Fi. It was also capped at recording video at 720p. The Arlo Go 2, on the other hand, is able to capture full 1080p video and will have a battery life of up to three months on LTE (eight when connected to Wi-Fi).

In addition to improving the recorded video quality and battery life, Arlo has also added GPS capabilities to the new camera. Now, in the event that the camera is misplaced, stolen, or otherwise, you can track the device down. The Arlo Go 2 is a motion-activated camera. Therefore, when capturing events during the night, the added spotlight feature can help see what unfolds in colour. This will be a nice upgrade from the former, which recorded nighttime activity in black and white.

Finally, audio functionality has been improved. Arlo has taken a page from the book of the Arlo Pro 4 camera. You can now hear and interact with someone in real-time in front of the camera as opposed to the original Arlo Go’s limited push-to-talk function

The Arlo Go 2 features a number of improved base functions. However, to fully grasp all that the camera offers, the Arlo Secure Subscription is required. Arlo offers a $9.99 USD (about $12.45 CAD) monthly subscription for unlimited cameras or a $2.99 USD (roughly $3.73 CAD) monthly option for a single camera. Alternatively, a premium $15 USD (approximately $18.70 CAD)/month plan is available and includes emergency response functionality. Video recording resolution will also be increased up to 4K with a subscription.

An active Arlo Secure Subscription enables features like Animated Preview, Interactive Notification, and detection of people, packages, vehicles, and animals. Users can also benefit from having their video history stored for up to 30 days. Priority support, smoke/co detection, and more are also locked behind Arlo Secure Subscription.

It’s worth noting that using the Arlo Go 2 on an LTE connection will also require a data plan from a carrier.

Image credit: Arlo

Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Google Pixel 6 series always-on display animation issue has an easy fix

If you’ve encountered an issue surrounding the Pixel 6’s and 6 Pro‘s always-on display animation, there’s a simple fix.

But first, here’s some background: if you change the Animator Duration Scale in the smartphone’s developer options, it causes the fingerprint print icon and battery level to disappear on the always-on screen, according to a Reddit user ‘Apk07‘.

To solve this problem you’ll need to return the ‘Animator Duration Scale’ back to its previous setting. To do this, navigate to the developer options in the ‘Systems’ menu, look for the ‘Animator Duration Scale’ option, and change it back to 1x speed.

While it’s weird this problem occurs, it likely has something to do with the smartphones’ always-on display, which switches to the lock screen once you tap on the screen or the power button. When that happens with the Pixel 6, the smartphone displays an animation that showcases a fingerprint outline on the always-on screen, which only works on the 1x animation setting.

Google’s Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are great devices but similar to other Pixel releases there seems to be at least a few issues with the devices. For example, some users have reported a flickering screen problem. Google has already said that it plans to fix this issue with its upcoming Pixel 6 December release update.

Source: Reddit Via: Android Police

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Mobile Syrup

Roku to close loophole that allowed porn channels on the platform

Roku will change up how it lets developers test apps and remove private channels in March 2022, effectively closing a loophole that allowed adult content providers, such as Montreal-based Pornhub, to offer content on the platform.

As reported by Protocol and The Verge, Roku announced a new ‘Independent Developer Kit’ and a new beta channel feature to replace existing tools like private channels. The former is a way for developers and hobbyists to experiment with apps and services without needing to use Roku’s software development kit (SDK), while the latter will allow developers to test channels with up to 20 users at a time.

The beta channel feature will replace private channels — or “uncertified channels,” as Roku likes to call them. The private channels system allowed developers to create channels without listing them in Roku’s Channel Store. However, they required a code to activate (or a direct link via Roku’s website).

Although private channels were intended for testing purposes, some developers used them to provide content that Roku doesn’t allow in its Channel Store — for example, porn.

Protocol reports that private channels from Pornhub and other adult content platforms such as Adult Empire, AEBN, Wicked, Adult Time and Naughty America are expected to disappear on March 1st.

Before this change, Roku effectively turned a blind eye to private channels, although it ran into issues for ignoring them. For example, a Mexican cable TV operator took Roku to court because people were able to access pirated content through private channels.

That led to Roku displaying a warning message when users attempted to access a private channel. The warning message said that Roku may remove private channels containing illegal content without notice and that Roku could ban repeat infringers from accessing other private channels.

Protocol notes that although there was also criticism of adult content on adult channels, it likely wasn’t the catalyst behind this change. Instead, Protocol suggests Roku’s move was to further lock down its Channel Store so that developers couldn’t bypass the rules, much like how Apple cracked down on its enterprise program to stop developers using it to bypass the App Store rules.

Source: Protocol Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

YouTube Music now offers free background listening in Canada

Canadian YouTube Music users can now listen to tunes in the background.

Google made the announcement last month, but the feature has now officially rolled out here.

With this update, you can continue to listen to YouTube Music while using other apps or when your phone’s screen is off.

This feature is available via YouTube Music’s free tier, meaning ads are supported. Otherwise, YouTube Premium, which includes YouTube Music Premium for ad-free music, is priced at $11.99/month.

In addition to background playback, the free YouTube Music tier does support continuous stations and shuffle and Google’s hands-free Assistant driving mode.

Via: Google Canada

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Mobile Syrup

It looks like Sonos is going to deliver a voice assistant soon

Sonos may be on the cusp of delivering its own digital assistant if a recent leak on Reddit is correct.

A few years ago, Sonos bought the privacy-focused digital assistant startup Snips. Since then, it’s been widely assumed that the company is working on its own digital assistant to playback music on its speakers. There have even been job listings at Sonos related to digital assistants.

Now, with this leak from Reddit, it appears that we’re getting our first real look at what the logo for the assistant might be. And surprisingly, it also shares the same shape as the text bubble within the Alexa logo. The leak also shows the Sonos assistant logo beside a Google Assistant icon, but it appears that it won’t work at the same time as that version.

The Verge speculates that these images mean that Alexa and the Sonos assistant can run concurrently, but not the Sonos assistant and Google Assistant. This aligns with prior reports claiming that Amazon was open to letting Sonos run both Alexa and Google Assistant at the same time on its speakers, but Google kiboshed the idea.

When it comes down to it, I’m not sure how I feel about Sonos having its own digital assistant. So far, I’ve found either Alexa or Google Assistant are able to cover most of my needs. There is an argument to be made that Sonos can keep all of the voice processing on-device for privacy reasons, but I’d expect most people won’t care.

Source: u/michary Via: The Verge 

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Mobile Syrup

Pixel owners with Android 12 beta not receiving November security patch

This year the Android 12 beta program has been a little different than it has in the past, and that seems to be blocking some Pixel users from downloading the latest November security patch.

Google is allowing beta testers to stay in the program as it redies the Android 12L beta. Usually, after the full build of Android goes live, Google automatically transitions users out of the beta and onto the stable build channel. This year that didn’t happen and now some users are reporting that they’re unable to get the November security patch.

To get around this, you can manually unroll your phone from the beta program without losing your data. You can do this by opening up the Android beta devices site and clicking on ‘Opt out’ to leave the beta. 9to5Google says that users can do this without losing their data until December 1st.

Once you do that, you should be able to go into your phone settings and trigger the November security update. MobileSyrup staff reporter Jon Lamont tested this out on a Pixel 4a 5G and was able to get the security patch within a few minutes of opting that device out of the beta.

Source: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Public Mobile offering 2GB of bonus monthly data to new customers

Public Mobile is now offering a switch-over bonus.

You can get 2GB of monthly bonus data when you activate a $35 per month plan when you use the ‘2GBBonus’ promo code.

“Activate today on any plan $35/mo+ using the promo code 2GBBONUS. Bonus data will be applied for as long as you’re with us,” the offer reads.

To get the deal, you’ll need to submit your email address on Public Mobile’s website. The carrier will then email the code to you.

The offer is only available to new customers who activate online, and it’s worth pointing out that the bonus data will expire if the account becomes inactive or if the plan changes.

The bonus data might take up to two business days to get applied, and the promotion isn’t stackable.

This isn’t the first time Public Mobile has offered this deal, as the company released the same promotion this past June.