The account in question is the handle “@e.” Musk used his newfound power and influence as owner and CEO of the company to forcibly take over the handle, reports Schiffer in a Twitter post.
NEW: Elon Musk has another alt account, @e, that he had Twitter transfer to him shortly after the takeover.
I'm told the person who owned the account did not want to hand it over (the account had been hacked and suspended before due to the high value handle, and the previous…
Taking a look at the “@e “account itself, there’s not a whole lot going on. The username reads “John Utah,” and there are no tweets published from the user. The account currently follows three others — Elon Musk, NASA, and LAist.
Single letter Twitter handles are highly sought after because of how easy to remember they are. The reason for Musk wanting this one in particular is unknown.
The news comes right after a previous report broke of Musk using a burner account, which he may have accidentally leaked to the world himself.
There are still so many question marks surrounding Microsoft’s pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard. (Image credit: Xbox)
Microsoft’s $68.7 billion USD (about $93.7 billion CAD) acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been rejected by the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
In a statement, the regulatory group said Microsoft “failed to effectively address the concerns in the cloud gaming sector” that Microsoft’s buyout of Activision Blizzard would lead to “reduced innovation and less choice for UK gamers over the years to come.”
Specifically, the CMA estimates that Microsoft already controls 60 to 70 percent of the cloud gaming market thanks to Xbox, Windows and its Azure cloud network. Therefore, there are concerns that ownership of Activision Blizzard’s extensive catalogue would only “reinforce Microsoft’s advantage” in this space.
For the CMA, cloud gaming presents an affordable alternative to consoles and PCs and “gives them much more flexibility and choice” regarding where they can play. “Allowing Microsoft to take such a strong position in the cloud gaming market just as it begins to grow rapidly would risk undermining the innovation that is crucial to the development of these opportunities,” it argues.
Over the past few months, Microsoft has been attempting to address anti-competition concerns by striking 10-year deals with the likes of Nintendo, Nvidia and Ukrainian cloud company Boosteroid to guarantee games like Call of Duty on those respective platforms. Microsoft said it offered similar agreements with Sony, although the PlayStation maker has instead been trying to block the deal altogether.
However, the CMA says there have been three major “shortcomings” in Microsoft’s case to buy Activision Blizzard:
“It did not sufficiently cover different cloud gaming service business models, including multigame subscription services.
It was not sufficiently open to providers who might wish to offer versions of games on PC operating systems other than Windows.
It would standardise the terms and conditions on which games are available, as opposed to them being determined by the dynamism and creativity of competition in the market, as would be expected in the absence of the merger.”
In a statement, Microsoft president Brad Smith said the company remains “fully committed” to the acquisition and will appeal the CMA’s decision. “We have already signed contracts to make Activision Blizzard’s popular games available on 150 million more devices, and we remain committed to reinforcing these agreements through regulatory remedies.” He went on to say that the decision “appears to reflect a flawed understanding of this market and the way the relevant cloud technology actually works.”
We remain fully committed to our acquisition with @ATVI_AB and will appeal today's determination by the CMA. Here's our statement. pic.twitter.com/ylvDP5RUqQ
The rumoured Studio Buds+ made a brief appearance on Amazon, though the listing has since been removed (you can still find it on the Wayback Machine). Along with the transparent colour, there will be ‘Black’ and ‘Ivory’ colour options. However, the overall design looks largely unchanged from the original Studio Buds.
Beyond the colour options, the listing revealed some other details. The Studio Buds+ will offer a “custom acoustic platform” for rich, immersive sound, have active noise-cancelling (ANC) and transparency modes, 36 hours of listening time and one-touch pairing.
The listing notes that the Studio Buds+ come with four pairs of silicon tips, offer ‘Class 1’ Bluetooth and have three larger voice-targeting mics to better filter background noise. The Buds Studio+ support spatial audio and are IPX4 rated for water and sweat resistance.
Moreover, the listing includes a May 18th release date, suggesting the Studio Buds+ are right around the corner. The listed price is $169.99 (or $169.95 for the transparent option).
To say that I’ve been concerned about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom leading up to its release would be an understatement.
First off, it’s been six years since the release of Breath of the Wild (a game that’s one of my favourites of all time), and fan expectations are understandably very high for its successor. This is why, like many that have been eagerly consuming everything Nintendo reveals about the game, I was disappointed to learn that at least some aspects of Tears of the Kingdom‘s world seem to be borrowed and remixed from its predecessor.
Then there are rumours about technical issues, the long-running report that the game was originally designed for the mythical Switch Pro, and that even though it’s been in development for half a decade, Tears of the Kingdom feels more like an expansion than a true sequel worthy of the Zelda name.
Image credit: Nintendo
Thankfully, based on a brief, very open section of the game I recently played, Nintendo once again likely has a genre-defining, groundbreaking game on its hands.
Let’s take a look at the game’s impressive new building system first. During one portion of the demo, I was tasked with making my way to a tower. I had the option of a full-frontal assault on the stairs leading up to the structure, or I could use Tears of the Kingdom‘s new building mechanics to sneak in from the back. After a brief failed attempt where I tried to run up the stairs swinging my sword like crazy, I opted for the latter.
First, I stumbled across several planks lying in the grass behind the tower. To move the largest plank that looked like it could work as a solid base for the structure I planned to build, I utilized Tears of the Kingdom‘s new ‘Ultrahand’ ability, which lets you pick up nearly any object and move it around.
Image credit: Nintendo
Next, I dropped a Zonai ‘Balloon’ item from my inventory and rotated it to sit upright on the plank. While it’s still not totally clear what they are or where they come from, Zonais are green-coloured, battery-powered devices you can attach to other objects to move and power them (more on this later). Once the Balloon was situated how I wanted, I realized it needed some form of forward motion, so I grabbed a pair of Zonai fans and rotated and attached them to the plank, ensuring that the air was blowing to the back of my plank vehicle to propel it forward.
This was when it clicked that the Balloon I attached to my contraption likely needed to be powered somehow, so I added another Zonai item called a ‘Flame Emitter’ to its base, which powered the balloon with fire and hot air. At this point, my makeshift vehicle seemed like it was prepared to carry Link to the back of the base, allowing me to avoid all the enemies guarding its front, so I slashed a fan with my sword to activate my machine (check out the video below to see it in action).
Unfortunately, my contraption had too much momentum and smashed directly into the nearby cliff. This was when a Nintendo representative suggested I try out ‘Recall,’ a new ability that allows players to stop and rewind time. I jumped back on the weird flying car-like device sitting at the mountain’s base and marvelled as it carried me back to the cliff.
Unfortunately, I still couldn’t quite get over the spikes guarding the base to devise another solution. After several more failed attempts, I decided to ‘Fuse’ a Zonai ‘Rocket’ to my shield, allowing me to boost high into the air as the platform bashed itself into the side of the cliff. After dropping the Rocket on the ground to use the ability, I watched in surprise as it shrank down to Link’s size and attached directly to my shield.
Fuse, another ability Nintendo has talked about leading up to Tears of the Kingdom‘s release, allows players to combine various items together in unique ways. For example, I later used it to attach a flaming fruit to an arrow to burn a pile of leaves and reveal a Korok Seed, and attached a barrel to my shield… which serves no purpose other than looking ridiculous.
I then safely floated down to the tower with the help of Link’s Paraglider.
My contraption wasn’t the most elegant solution to the puzzle, but it worked and is an example of the open-ended experimentation Tears of the Kingdom encourages through its extensive building mechanics. It reminded me of a more customizable version of Breath of the Wild‘s Rune abilities like ‘Magnesis,’ which allows you to carry metallic objects and ‘Stasis,’ an ability that briefly stops time.
The next portion of the demo tasked me with navigating between several floating islands while using various abilities, Zonai devices and objects in the environment. In some cases, I just attached a rocket to my shield again to propel Link upwards, while in others, I experimented with attaching rockets to a floating platform, and in one situation, I built an airplane-like flying vehicle that even featured a steering wheel.
Also, just like in producer Eiji Aonuma’s recent Tears of the Kingdom presentation, I attached a rock to a spear via fuse and combine two broken weapons together. I’m not sure creating new weapons out of broken components will solve the issue many people have with Breath of the Wild‘s constantly breaking weapons, but it’s a fascinating spin on the concept and I’m excited to experiment with it more. Speaking of Aonuma, I feel like his development team caught wind of this video of YouTube Kleric making a “flying machine” in Breath of the Wild, because it seems to have inspired a lot of Tears of the Kingdom‘s mechanics, particularly during the initial part of the demo.
Image credit: Nintendo
It took me a while to get the hang of using Ultrahand and abilities like Fuse, but I think this is mainly because Nintendo’s demo dropped players right into the game. There was no tutorial or gradual introduction to Zonai items and Tears of the Kingdom‘s emphasis on Trailmakers-inspired building, so it was a lot to wrap my head around in a brief period. Still, the game’s intricate but accessible building system started to feel natural after only spending roughly an hour with the game, which speaks to how impressive it is.
On the more negative side of things, while Tears of the Kingdom look great, it’s still a Switch title. Graphical aliasing issues are rampant, giving the game a muddy look compared to crystal clear Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 games, and strange clipping issues occur occasionally. For example, my club-spear combo weapon clipped through the environment. Thankfully, Tears of the Kingdom runs at a smooth frame rate and doesn’t suffer from noticeable pop-in. Still, just like with Breath of the Wild, I can’t help but wonder what Aonuma and his team could create if the Switch’s ancient hardware didn’t constrain them.
I also can’t shake the feeling that Tears of the Kingdom‘s focus on building is a strange direction for the Zelda series. At times, the game didn’t really feel like a Zelda title, but this might not necessarily be a bad thing, especially for a series that’s been around this long. Fresh takes on a franchise are important and rare when it comes to Nintendo’s series. Several questions still remain, too, including if Shrines and dungeons are back (and if there are more than four this time).
At the outset, I’m impressed with what I’ve played of Tears of the Kingdom so far and excited to see if the full game lives up to my high expectation for Link’s next adventure.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom releases on May 12th for the Nintendo Switch for $89.96 and is available for pre-order now. MobileSyurp will have more on the game in the coming weeks.
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Rogers Communications earned $3.8 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2023.
Revenue from its services saw a 4 percent increase compared to the first quarter of 2022, and growth in wireless service revenue (up 7 percent year over year) played a role.
This was primarily due to higher revenue from roaming services due to increased travel. Rogers also reports its net postpaid mobile subscriber count grew by 95,000, increasing the figure by 29,000 year over year. Revenue from wireless equipment also increased by 22 percent, mainly due to device upgrades.
This is the company’s first quarterly release post-Shaw acquisition. Rogers received final approval on April 3rd, which also saw Québecor subsidiary Vidéotron acquire Freedom Mobile.
However, Rogers has attained half a million Shaw Mobile subscribers. The company has also acquired 2 million Fibre+ subscribers, nearly 1.7 million video subscribers, and almost 1 million home phone subscribers.
Rogers has agreed to provide Québecor with certain services, including allowing Freedom subscribers to access Shaw’s business “Go Wi-Fi” hotspots.
As of March 31st, Rogers reached 2,000 communities across Canada. In the last quarter, it also activated 24,000 mobile services plans for newcomers at airports in Montreal, Calgary and Toronto.
A Reddit user has discovered that Microsoft’s Edge browser is sending URLs that you visit to its Bing API website.
The latest version of Microsoft Edge sends a request to bingapis.com with the URL of “nearly” every page you navigate to.
Microsoft knows about the issue, and is currently investigating.
First spotted by Reddit user u/hackermchackface, the user said, “Searching for References to this url [bingapis.com] give very few results, no documentation on this feature at all. Json response shows type as “FollowableStatus” which yields zero Google results, which is rare.”
According to Rafael Rivera, a software engineer, the issue stems from a new poorly implemented feature in Microsoft Edge. In a statement given to The Verge, Rivera said, “Microsoft Edge now has a creator follow feature that is enabled by default. It appears the intent was to notify Bing when you’re on certain pages, such as YouTube, The Verge, and Reddit. But it doesn’t appear to be working correctly, instead sending nearly every domain you visit to Bing.”
The creator follow feature was first spotted in January 2022 as part of the browser’s deeper integration with YouTube that adds the followed channels to a new ‘Collections’ tab in Edge’s top right toolbar, where you can view an RSS-like feed of content from all creators you follow.
According to The Verge, disabling the creator follow feature stops Edge from sending your URLs to bingapis.com. To disable the feature, head to Settings > Privacy, Search and Services and scroll down to Services. Toggle off the switch next to ‘Show suggestions to follow creators in Microsoft Edge.’
“We’re aware of reports, are investigating and will take appropriate action to address any issues,” said Caitlin Roulston, director of communications at Microsoft, in a statement to The Verge.
Anker is currently offering a number of great deals this week. The company has further reduced prices on their already discounted accessories, which include portable chargers, plugs, and other accessories.
MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though we may earn a commission on purchases made via these links that helps fund the journalism provided free on our website.
Canadian mobile carrier Telus is celebrating a new milestone – the planting of its 1 millionth tree. This number of trees is equivalent to 20,000 acres of forest, according to the company.
“Planting trees and restoring kelp forests is critically important because trees and underwater habitats are essential nature-based climate solutions,” says Geoff Pegg, head of sustainability at Telus.
Telus outlines a number of environmental goals and initiatives it’s taking part in, which can be read in its 2022 Sustainability and ESG Report. This includes the goal of using 100 percent renewable or low-emitting energy by 2025.
The telecom giant is currently partnered with environmental restoration companies such as Veritree and Flash Forest. Its efforts on reforestation and seaforestation projects are ongoing.
The news comes at a time when climate change concerns are top-of-mind for many. A number of other tech companies are pledging support towards environmental initiatives, including becoming carbon neutral in the coming years.
Horizon Forbidden West introduced its Burning Shores story expansion DLC earlier this month to praise from critics for its gameplay additions. However, an influx of hostile user reviews over a part of the narrative has led to Metacritic promising to implement stricter moderation for reviews on the site.
*Spoilers for Burning Shores*
At the end of the DLC, players are given the option to engage in a romance with female hero Seyka, a pivotal new character. If selected, the franchise’s protagonist, Aloy, will kiss Seyka.
This decision was the cause of many negative reviews for the title, with many players condemning developer Guerrilla’s decision to allow for same-sex romance in the game.
Horizon Forbidden West currently sits at a 3.9 user score on Metacritic, with the rating having gone as low as 2.7 despite critical acclaim.
One review reads, “Sony went too far in cramming the extremist agenda into its games and we as players will not accept that.” Another says, “Understand, when a person turns on the video game they don’t want to be participating in cheap and poorly done activism.”
In response to the behaviour, Metacritic told Eurogamer that they are aware of the “abusive and disrespectful reviews of Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores.” They also claimed that they are evolving tools and processes to introduce stricter moderation in the coming months.
One reviewer pointed out that Metacritic had deleted their previous reviews, saying, “3 times now Metacritic has deleted my honest review – talk about censorship! The average user review was at 3, and now it’s 3,8 because Metacritic is deleting all the negative reviews.”
This is a process that Metacritic itself stated it has been doing, saying that “Our team reviews each and every report of abuse (including but not limited to racist, sexist, homophobic, insults to other users, etc.) and if violations occur, the reviews are removed.”
In other news, Guerrilla Games is currently working on an online Horizon project and “epic solo adventures” featuring protagonist Aloy.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has been spoiled online just days before its official April 28th release.
This week, someone who seems to have been sold the Electronic Arts game early began posting spoilers on ResetEra, and they’ve since been shared elsewhere. The leaks have led EA to take to its official Star Wars account to ask people to not ruin the surprises for one another.
No spoilers! ✋
We’re beyond excited for everyone to experience #StarWarsJediSurvivor this week! We ask that you please be mindful of others and avoid posting or sharing spoilers.
The spoilers, which we won’t link to here, include information related to the game’s ending, characters, planets and more. Given that we’re still a few days away from release, it’s likely that spoilers will only continue to be shared more widely throughout the week, so tread lightly. If you’re on Twitter, you might want to mute words and hashtags like ‘#StarWarsJediSurvivor’ just to be safe.
Jedi: Survivor is Respawn’s sequel to its acclaimed 2019 action-adventure game, Jedi: Fallen Order and once again follows former Jedi Cal Kestis as he navigates an Empire-controlled galaxy. Notably, the game is one of the few to be developed exclusively for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC, which Respawn says it’s leveraging for better load times, larger areas and other technical benefits. The game also marks the end of EA’s 10-year exclusivity deal on Star Wars games, after which time publishers like Ubisoft will release their own titles set in a galaxy far, far away.
For now, though, Jedi: Survivor is set to be one of the biggest games of the year. It’s also kicking off a busy two-month period for game releases that includes fellow heavy-hitters like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Diablo IV and Final Fantasy XVI. Read more on what the next couple of months has to offer here.
I also can’t shake the feeling that Tears of the Kingdom‘s focus on building is a strange direction for the Zelda series. At times, the game didn’t really feel like a Zelda title, but this might not necessarily be a bad thing, especially for a series that’s been around this long. Fresh takes on a franchise are important and rare when it comes to Nintendo’s series. Several questions still remain, too, including if Shrines and dungeons are back (and if there are more than four this time).
