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The Mobile Shop says Albertans like texting each other 🍆

Albertans really like texting each other 🍆 emojis, according to The Mobile Shop.

The retailer, which sells phones and mobile plans out of grocery stores that carry President’s Choice products, recently ran a study about Canadian texting habits. In an email to MobileSyrup, The Mobile Shop details some “key findings” from that study.

For one, Canada’s favourite emojis include the laughing face 😂 (used by 63 percent of the population), the crying face 😢 (used by 42 percent of the population) and the kissing face 😗 (used by 39 percent of the population).

Fewer Canadians like using the “more scandalous emojis,” according to The Mobile Shop. Those include the peach 🍑 and eggplant 🍆 at six percent and the fire 🔥 at 13 percent. However, Alberta apparently leads the way in eggplant emoji usage.

Moreover, one or two emojis per message is the “sweet spot,” according to 64 percent of Canadians. However, seven percent believe five or more is acceptable. Most of those folks are from Atlantic Canada, which is apparently the “most emoji-happy.” However, those living in Manitoba or Saskatchewan are least likely to text with emojis — 20 percent agree that no emojis at all is the way to go.

Finally, The Mobile Shop says that on average, only two in 10 Canadians text using acronyms like ‘lol,’ while Canadians under 34 most commonly use voice notes, exclamation marks and GIFs.

MobileSyrup reached out to The Mobile Shop for additional details about Canadian texting habits and will update this post with any interesting bonus information the retailer provides.

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Mobile Syrup

Google will bring MUM-based search enhancements to Lens

Back at Google I/O 2021, the search giant detailed ‘Multitask Unified Model,’ or MUM. The company billed it as an advancement in artificial intelligence that was much better at understanding language.

Google primarily talked about MUM as a way to enhance answers to search queries by better understanding difficult questions. Now, Google is bringing those enhancements to another search product: Lens.

One of the primary benefits of MUM is that it can understand information across a variety of formats, like text, images and video. By integrating MUM in Lens, Google says it’s opening a new way to search by letting users blend visuals and text-based queries to get better results.

The company shared a few examples of how this could work. One example was clothes shopping — if the customer saw a pattern they liked on a skirt but wanted the same design on socks instead, they could use Lens to search for that. Google says the feature will launch on Lens “in the coming months.”

New search experiences focus on expanding topics and visual results

Next up, the company detailed a redesigned search experience coming to Google Search. Three new components are coming as part of this redesign.

First is ‘Things to know,’ which will offer expanded search suggestions based on broad topics. For example, searching for something like ‘acrylic painting’ can surface other “deeper insights” about the topic, like ‘how to make acrylic paintings with household items.’ Google pitched it as a way for users to dive deeper into search topics.

Next is ‘Refine this search’ and ‘Broaden this search.’ Working as two sides of the same coin feature, refine and broaden are another way of helping users explore a topic. For example, if users look up a really broad topic, ‘Refine’ can suggest more narrow searches to help users zoom in on the specific. At the same time, ‘Broaden’ suggests searches that move in the opposite direction — if someone searches a narrow query, Broaden can help them zoom out to get a bigger picture.

Further, Google says it will soon offer a more visual search results page. The new results page will pull various types of results together for users — for example, it can combine text, picture and video results in one place. The new search results page won’t show up for everything, but users will start to see it when searching visual queries.

Things to know will launch in the coming months. So will Refine and Broaden, but it will be limited to English. Visual results will launch in the U.S. first for English users.

Finally, Google plans to introduce MUM to video with a new experience that identifies related topics in a video. Google says this works even if a topic isn’t explicitly mentioned in a video. The feature could be a way to help people dig deeper into video topics.

This will start rolling out on September 29th to English users in the U.S.

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Mobile Syrup

Bell extends pure fibre network to Memramcook and St. Martins, N.B.

Two communities in New Brunswick are the latest regions added to Bell’s pure fibre internet network.

Bell announced plans to expand its all-fibre broadband services to the coastal villages of Memramcook and St. Martins over the coming months.

According to the press release, the expansion will cover 2,900 homes and businesses in total.

Bell expects its infrastructural work in these two areas will be completed by the end of 2021.

This expansion project is funded by a $1.7 billion investment from the telecom giant, and is –according to Bell — the largest initiative of its kind ever undertaken by the company

Recently, on September 14th, the same investment funded the expansion of Bell’s fibre broadband network in seven other communities in New Brunswick’s Acadian Peninsula.

Source: Bell

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Mobile Syrup

Fido offering $45/25GB winback plan to some former customers

If you’ve switched from Fido in recent months, check your email because you might have an offer for a $45 per month 25GB plan, under a new winback offer from the Roger-owned carrier.

As shared by a MobileSyrup reader, former Fido customers are receiving emails regarding a’winback’ promotion that includes 25GB of data, unlimited calling and texting, voicemail, data overage protection and more.

As expected, this plan doesn’t exist on Rogers’ website — the closest one I can find is 15GB for a $70 per month plan.

This isn’t the first time Fido has offered former customers lucrative plans. For example, the same 25GB/$45 winback promotion was active in February.

Thanks Shea

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Mobile Syrup

Amazon’s Astro robot might not be great at detecting stairs

After making a big deal about a little robot that will likely only be purchased by a few people, it’s now come to light that Amazon’s Astro robot that could, probably can’t.

Leaked documents that reportedly come from Amazon employees working on Astro claim it’s a disaster that’s not ready to be released, according to The Verge. Another Amazon employee working on the Astro project called it terrible and said that it’s absurd to think of it as an elder care device. There are also reports that the robot will throw itself down stairs if given the chance.

As expected, Amazon has refuted these reports and claims they’re outdated.

A separate report from Vice notes that Astro is not very sturdy and states that a few of its test devices have already broken. This isn’t the best thing to hear about a device that costs over $1,000 USD ($1,274 CAD), is designed to drive around at foot level and has a fatal attraction to stairs.

If you plan to buy an Astro, I’d say make sure whatever drinks are in the cupholders have tight lids.

There are also reports claiming that the device isn’t great at identifying people and will follow around anyone it thinks is an intruder.

Overall, I expect a bit more from Amazon. The company might not make the best hardware or software, but its several Echo devices are passable for the most part. Still, this is a first-generation device, so hopefully, we see Amazon make significant strides with subsequent iterations.

Amazon has confirmed to MobileSyrup that Astro will not be available in Canada when it launches.

Source: The Verge, Vice

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Mobile Syrup

Here are the free games hitting PlayStation Plus in October 2021

PlayStation offers a few games at no additional cost to those subscribed to its PlayStation Plus service every month.

Now, the company has revealed the trio of games that will land on PS Plus in October, which are the same three that were leaked earlier this week.

PlayStation 5 owners can snag the multiplayer shooter Hell Let Loose, while the Canadian-made golf sim PGA Tour 2K21 and visceral fighter Mortal Kombat X make up the two free PS4 games.

All three games will be available for free through PS Plus from October 5th to November 1st.

PlayStation Plus costs $11.99 CAD/month, $29.99/three months or $69.99/year.

September’s free PlayStation Plus games, which include Hitman 2, will remain available until October 4th.

Image credit: Team17

Source: PlayStation

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Mobile Syrup

Get one month of free service with Lucky Mobile’s flash sale

Lucky Mobile is currently offering a Flash Sale that gives you one free month of service.

To take advantage of the offer, you need to purchase a SIM card from the provider. While Lucky Mobile SIM cards are available at certain retailers across the country, such as Dollarama and Giant Tiger, you’ll have to purchase one from the carrier’s website for $5 to claim the offer.

If you sign up for the deal, you need to pay for your first month of service, but you’ll get a bill credit for the second month, essentially making one month of service free.

It’s worth noting that the offer ends on October 1st. However, the fine print on the promotion page says you can activate the SIM card by October 29th.

You can learn more about the deal on Lucky Mobile’s website. Check out this coverage map to find out if Lucky Mobile’s service is available in your area.

Image credit: Lucky Mobile

Source: Lucky Mobile

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Mobile Syrup

The Mandalorian spin-off ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ to hit Disney+ on December 29

Lucasfilm has confirmed that its highly anticipated spin-off to The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, will premiere on Disney+ on December 29th.

The company had previously only given a vague “December” release window. Set after the events of The Mandalorian‘s second season, the series “finds legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett and mercenary Fennec Shand navigating the Galaxy’s underworld when they return to the sands of Tatooine to stake their claim on the territory once ruled by Jabba the Hutt and his crime syndicate,” according to Lucasfilm.

Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen are reprising their roles of Fett and Shand, respectively. Key members of The Mandalorian‘s creative team, including Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni and Robert Rodriguez, are also working on The Book of Boba Fett.

Additionally, Lucasfilm unveiled the first look at key art from the upcoming series, which features Fett sitting on his new throne.

It’s a big time for Disney+, as the streaming service is set to celebrate its second anniversary on November 12th.

To commemorate, Disney will hold its first-ever annual ‘Disney+ Day’ event on that date, which will feature premieres like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and announcements from the likes of Marvel and Lucasfilm.

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Mobile Syrup

Dell Canada’s Deals of the Week discounts several gaming laptops and PCs

Dell Canada’s limited-time “Deals of the Week” sale discounts several Laptops, PCs, and headphones with free shipping.

Check out some of the deals below:

Laptops

Gaming Laptops

Desktops and all-in-ones

Monitors

Headphones

A full list of products under Dell’s ‘Deals of the Week’ sale can be found here. It’s worth noting that the sale ends on Friday, October 1st at 6am ET.

Image credit: Dell

Source: Dell

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Mobile Syrup

Toronto-made Xbox indie game Echo Generation will release on October 21

Toronto-based indie developer Cococucumber has revealed that its adventure game Echo Generation will release on October 21st.

The game is coming to Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and Steam, with a simultaneous day one launch on Game Pass for Console and PC.

The release date was revealed in a new trailer:

Inspired by both coming-of-age films and horror novels, Echo Generation follows a group of kids in a small fictional Canadian town as they investigate supernatural occurrences. In terms of gameplay, the kids will fight off against bizarre creatures in classic RPG-inspired turn-based combat while recruiting pet companions to assist them.

On Xbox Series X, 4K/60fps will be supported.

Image credit: Cococucumber