Author: Mobile Syrup

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Mobile Syrup

The voices of Mario, Master Chief and Nathan Drake are coming to Fan Expo Canada

Fan Expo Canada has announced three video game-related guests, and they’re rather big ones.

The voices of Super Mario‘s Mario (Charles Martinet), Halo‘s Master Chief (Steve Downes) and Uncharted‘s Nathan Drake (Nolan North) will all make an appearance at the Toronto-based convention in October.

It’s a pretty notable get for the show, as the actors each play the characters representing the “Big Three” in gaming — Nintendo (Mario), Xbox (Halo) and PlayStation (Uncharted).

Fan Expo Canada is operating under a ‘Limited Edition’ format this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that total attendance will be capped 25,000 people and the show is running for three days (October 22-24) instead of the usual four. With that in mind, Martinet is set to appear all three days (the website incorrectly lists him for “Thursday” as well, despite the show not taking part on that day), as is North. Downes, meanwhile, is set to appear on Friday only.

The actors will offer autographs and photo ops at their tables. It seems like some sort of joint panel to share their respective experiences in gaming would also make a lot of sense, but one hasn’t been confirmed as of yet. We’ve reached out to Fan Expo and will update this story once a response has been received or an official schedule has been revealed.

Other guests at this year’s Fan Expo include Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, The Mandalorian and the upcoming Canadian-made Far Cry 6), Toronto’s own Stephen Amell (Arrow, Heels) and Robbie Amell (The Flash, Upload), Michael Rooker (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Walking Dead), Montreal’s own William Shatner (Star Trek) and Ray Fisher (Zack Snyder’s Justice League).

Tickets start at $35 CAD — you can learn more here.

Source: Fan Expo Canada

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Mobile Syrup

Bell-owned Virgin Plus to meet government wireless price targets next month

Bell says that starting October 5th, its flanker brand Virgin Plus will offer reduced wireless costs that meet government targets.

In 2020, the federal government set a goal to reduce wireless plans by 25 percent in Canada. Since then, innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) has published quarterly reports on wireless pricing.

The 2020 benchmark listed targets for 2GB, 4GB and 6GB plans. For 2GB options, the benchmark wanted to see prices drop from $50/month to $37.50/month, 4GB from $55 to $41.25 and 6GB from $60 to $45.

Bell’s announcement says that Virgin Plus will offer those plans exactly, starting on October 5th. Further, the carrier noted the reduced pricing comes “several months in advance of federal expectations” of a 25 percent price reduction by 2022.

  • 2GB – $37.50/mo
    4GB – $41.25/mo
    6GB – $45/mo

Unfortunately, it isn’t easy to make a direct comparison since Virgin Plus currently doesn’t offer 2GB or 6GB plans. The flanker brand’s 4GB plan costs $45 per month. Moreover, the CRTC-mandated ‘low-cost plans’ offered by Virgin Plus and other wireless carriers don’t count towards the government’s 25 percent reduction benchmark because carriers capped these low-cost plans at 3G download speeds.

“Our goal at Bell is to advance how all Canadians connect, and these latest mobile data price reductions build on the actions we’re taking every day to make our world-leading networks and services even better,” said Bell president and CEO Mirko Bibic.

However, it’s important to note that these price reductions only apply to Virgin Plus, not Bell’s postpaid plans, which are as follows:

  • $30/mo “Basic 30” plan with unlimited calls and texts (Only available as BYOP or with purchase of a ‘Basic’ phone)
  • $80/mo 30GB
  • $85/mo 35GB
  • $125/mo 50GB
  • $175/mo 100GB

So far, the government’s quarterly price reduction reports have shown a slight trend towards lower wireless costs. At the same time, the reports have revealed inconsistent availability for these plans. Many of the lower-cost options are promotional plans that carriers only offer for a limited time. Another frustration with the 25 percent reduction target is that the Big Three carriers have managed to skate around it by meeting the target with lower-cost flanker brands while keeping prices in the $80+ realm on main brands.

Bell also cited a Statistics Canada stat that wireless prices have dropped 31 percent since January 2019. Rogers, Bell and Telus first launched their new unlimited wireless plans in June and July of 2019. Those plans offered a significant price reduction by providing more data and separating the cost of devices from the plan. Although the new plans were cheaper than what was offered earlier that year, Rogers, Bell and Telus have since increased the starting cost of those plans.

Source: Bell

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Mobile Syrup

Rogers rolls out new security and monitoring features to Ignite Wifi Hub app

Toronto-based national telecom Rogers announced new features coming to its ‘Ignite WiFi Hub’ app that the internet service provider (ISP) says will help improve control over home Wi-Fi.

The first of the new features is ‘Active Time Details.’ It allows customers to access an activity summary for each user profile and see time spent on popular apps and websites while that profile’s connected to home Wi-Fi.

Rogers indicated the feature would be helpful for parents in managing kids’ online activity and time.

The other new feature, ‘Advanced Security,’ can protect customers’ data and devices by continuously monitoring the Wi-Fi network for suspicious activity. If Advanced Security detects suspicious activity, it can block it in real-time and provide alerts to users to help address potential issues.

Rogers says Advanced Security can analyze activity sent through the ‘Ignite WiFi Gateway’ and complements traditional antivirus software with “intelligent cyberthreat protection for all the connected devices” in a home.

These new features join other existing capabilities of Rogers’ Ignite WiFi Hub app, such as personalized connection profiles for family members. Other features include the ability to see who’s online at home from the app, an easy way to check or reset the Wi-Fi password and optimization tools to maximize Wi-Fi performance.

To make use of these features, customers need the free Ignite Wifi Hub app (available on the Play Store and App Store) as well as an Ignite internet package from Rogers with an Ignite Wifi Gateway modem.

Source: Rogers

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Mobile Syrup

TCL patent reveals detachable smartphone camera module

The China National Intellectual Property Administration has published a TCL patent that shows off a weird smartphone with a removable camera setup.

The patent, first spotted by LetsGoDigital, shows off what looks like a normal-looking smartphone at first. However, it seems like you can remove its dual-camera housing and attach it to the side of the handset.

The image included in the patent shows off a phone with very thin edges and no front-facing selfie camera.

The patent outlines how two small connectors attach the camera module to the side of the device’s edges, allowing users to take selfies. This probably wouldn’t be great if you’re like me and like taking selfies. Being forced to move the camera constantly could get frustrating quickly, but if you’re someone who doesn’t care about your smartphone’s front-facing shooter, I can see this being a decent solution.

It’s unclear whether these cameras can also be used on their own when not connected to the smartphone. The patent was published and approved on September 28th.

In the past, TCL has shown off a ‘Fold ‘n Roll’ smartphone and a foldable that could have been the competitor to the Z Flip 3. As always, it’s important to note that this is just a patent and that this technology could never make its way into a TCL smartphone.

Source: LetsGoDigital

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Mobile Syrup

Keynote, Pages and Numbers receive significant feature updates

Update ‘Version 11.2’ to Apple’s suite of iWork applications has dropped with significant feature additions to Keynote, Pages and Numbers for iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Starting with Keynote, users can now add live video directly to their presentation, allowing you to appear alongside the content you’re showing across iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Further, you can also adjust your video feed by resizing it or customize its appearance with the new masks, frames, drop shadows, and reflection add-ons.

You can also add feeds from several external cameras and share a linked iPhone or iPad screen with the Mac version of Keynote, similar to what Skype is doing with its TwinCam feature. Keynote has gained a new multi-presenter feature that allows anybody to control a shared presentation remotely and change slides using a Mac, iPhone, or iPad.

Apple has also optimized the Pages experience on iOS. The Screen View feature on Pages now organizes text, pictures and other document elements into a single-column view with increased text sizes and images sized to fit your phone’s screen.

Further, tables can now be scrolled horizontally, and users can continue to edit documents as usual when Screen View is enabled. There’s no need to configure the feature, and it works with all word processing documents.

Lastly, you can turn off Screen View to view the actual layout of the document before sharing or printing it.

Apple has also introduced pivot tables for Numbers so that “users can quickly summarize, group, and rearrange data to identify and analyze patterns and trends.” You can choose what data to include and decide how to group or summarize it.

Users can use smart charts to visualize pivot tables, share the data with others all while keeping the source data private, and import and export pivot tables to and from Microsoft Excel.

Numbers has also gained new Radar Charts that, according to Apple, will make it easy for users to “visually compare multiple variables with similarities shown as overlapping areas, allowing differences and outliers to really stand out.”

Across all the apps, Apple’s new translation tools now work with Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, allowing users to immediately read a translation, hear it out loud, and replace the selected text with the translated text.

Image credit: Apple

Source: Apple

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Mobile Syrup

This AirTag-sized miniature Game Boy replica comes with five games

How small does a handheld console need to be to qualify as ‘portable?’ Whatever the answer might be, TinyCircuits’ Thumby definitely falls under the criteria.

Thumby is the world’s smallest handheld gaming device, measuring at 29.5mm x 18mm x 8.5mm (1.2-inch x 0.7-inch x 0.3-inch), roughly the same size as Apple’s AirTags.

The miniature handheld features a black and white 72 x 40 pixel resolution OLED screen along with a functioning D-Pad and A/B buttons, and comes with R.F.S.D., TinyAnnelid, TinyDelvere, TinyTris, and TinySaur Run preloaded. However, thanks to the device’s micro USB port, you can create your own games for the handheld and upload them to the miniature Game Boy replica.

Thumby’s tiny 40mAh lithium-polymer battery manages to offer enough power for roughly two hours of gameplay, and its 2MB of storage should be more than adequate for a reasonable number of games.

TinyCircuit is launching the device via Kickstarter for $19, with its estimated delivery scheduled for February 2022.

Image credit: TinyCircuits

Source: TinyCircuits

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Mobile Syrup

iOS 15 simplifies Apple’s Clock app and alarm editing

iOS 14 was overall a great operating system that brought widgets, privacy enhancements and a home screen redesign to Apple’s iPhone. However, iOS 14 also saw Apple transitioning from its traditional ‘clock’ interface and the removal of the wheel picker.

While setting alarms with iOS 14 wasn’t an issue, editing or deleting them was. Tapping an alarm did nothing, and you had to press the edit button before making any changes, which felt highly unnecessary.

However, with iOS 15, iPhone’s clock interface has gone back to the wheel picker layout, and alarms can be edited or deleted fairly quickly with the tap of a button now.

Read through the steps below or watch the short gif above:

  1. Open the Clock app
  2. Go to the ‘Alarm’ tab at the bottom
  3. To delete: You can either swipe an alarm to the left or click on it and tap the ‘Delete Alarm’ option
  4. To edit: Click on the specific alarm you want to change, and the wheel picker layout will pop up, allowing you to make any changes, including setting it to repeat, labels, sound and a snooze toggle
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Mobile Syrup

Your iPhone 13 will disable Face ID if it detects a third-party screen replacement

iFixit recently confirmed that changing an iPhone 13 series’ battery will result in an “Unable to verify this iPhone has a genuine Apple battery” message.

However, the device will continue to operate like normal but without access to battery health features, just like Apple’s iPhone 12 series.

Now, more information from iFixit’s teardown of the iPhone 13 Pro reveals that swapping the phone’s display will render Face ID useless.

“We tried transferring the sensors from the old display and porting over the Face ID hardware, but no dice,” reads iFixit’s teardown. It seems as though the display is serial-locked to the specific device, and changing it disables Face ID.

However, this happens with third-party repairs and getting your iPhone 13’s screen replaced from Apple’s service centre won’t result in the Face ID malfunction.

YouTuber ‘Phone Repair Guru’ also reported the same issue. Watch the video below for reference:

Image credit: iFixit

Source: iFixit

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Mobile Syrup

Stadia Phone Link allows you to use your phone as a Stadia controller

You can now use your mobile phone as a controller for Stadia when playing games on a TV.

At launch, Google’s Stadia game streaming platform only worked with the official Stadia Controller. Then came support for third-party gamepads, like the PlayStation and Xbox controllers. Now, Stadia has launched a new feature called ‘Phone Link’ that allows Android and iOS devices to double as a touchscreen gamepad when playing Stadia on the Google TV, Android TV or the Chromecast Ultra.

As noted by 9to5Google, Phone Link also allows your smartphone to act as a bridge between unsupported controllers and your TV. You can use Phone Link to connect third-party controllers to your smartphone, which then transmits the signal to your TV, allowing you to use a controller that traditionally can’t connect to your TV through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. This adds a little bit of response time delay and lag, but it’s better than having no third-party controller support at all.

Follow the steps below to connect your smartphone to a Stadia supported Android/Google TV and use it as a controller:

  • Launch the Stadia app on your TV
  • Launch the Stadia app on your smartphone
  • Tap the controller prompt and follow the instruction on the screen

Follow the steps below to connect your smartphone to Chromecast Ultra and use it as a controller:

  • Select the input to which your Chromecast Ultra is connected to your TV
  • A linking code should be visible on the Chromecast’s ambient mode screen.
  • Launch the Stadia app on your phone
  • Select the controller icon
  • Then, select Phone Touch Gamepad
  • Then choose Play on TV
  • Enter the linking code, and you’re good to go

Source: Stadia Via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Microsoft Store will soon let users access Amazon, Epic Game stores

Microsoft has revealed it will soon allow third-party app stores to integrate into the Microsoft Store.

The first two digital storefronts to join the Microsoft Store are the Amazon and Epic Game Stores, according to Microsoft.

“Today, we are sharing that Amazon and Epic Games will bring their storefront apps to the Microsoft Store over the next few months, and we look forward to welcoming other stores as well in the future,” writes Giorgio Sardo, the Microsoft Store’s general manager, in a recent Windows blog post.

Further, the blog post indicates that users will be able to search quickly for their intended store through Microsoft’s search icon or by browsing.

Microsoft says its store is also opening up to other browsers like Opera and Yandex, which are rivals to Microsoft’s own Edge browser. That said, Chrome and Firefox are still not in the Microsoft Store, and Steam and GOG aren’t part of this announcement either.

Microsoft says that this update is all part of a broader suite of changes coming alongside Windows 11, including Android apps coming to the operating system.

Source: Windows Blog Via: The Verge