Author: Mobile Syrup

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Mobile Syrup

Google launches new Google Cloud region in Toronto

Google is launching a new Google Cloud region in Toronto, Ontario — its second location in Canada.

This new Cloud region, alongside the Montreal region announced in 2017, offers Canadian businesses the option of storing their data on Google servers housed locally in Canada.

Having two Canadian Google Cloud regions is generally understood as a move towards better data security and privacy, as servers built in the United States — where Google bases its operations — are subject to different federal laws regarding access to information, such as the controversial Patriot Act.

According to the press release, the new Toronto region will help businesses “prevent against service disruptions” and provides faster access to Google’s Cloud Platform services such as: Compute Engine, App Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, Bigtable, Spanner, and BigQuery.

The press release also featured quotes from a number of Google’s Canadian customers, including TELUS, Scotiabank, Natural Resources Canada, Accenture, Deloitte, and Softchoice.

Notably, Google Cloud recently entered a multi-year partnership with Montreal-based telecom Bell to combine its 5G network with Google’s multi-cloud, data analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) services.

With this new location in Toronto, there are now 27 Google Cloud regions globally.

Image credit: Google

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Mobile Syrup

Sonos announces new second-gen Beam soundbar with Dolby Atmos

Sonos is back in the living room with its latest product. The second-generation Sonos Beam.

This new Beam steps up the audio quality with Dolby Atmos support and takes on the all plastic, and easy to clean, design of the well regarded Sonos Arc.

All in all, it appears to be a recipe for success, but if it truly sounds better, then the previous model is still up for debate. The other issue, at least for Canadians, is that the new Beam will retail for $650 CAD. This is $150 more than the previous version.

Like the original Beam, though, the new version has four mid-woofers facing forward and a single tweeter in the centre of the speaker for clear vocals. The first Beam was a decent soundbar, so I’d expect this one to be just as good.

On the other hand, Sonos says that due to software improvements, the new chi can do Dolby Atmos and some other tricks it can do Atmos and provides a better overall soundscape.

Like most modern Sonos speakers its also got access to AirPlay 2, Google Assistant, Alexa and Spotify Connect. You can also stream music from Sonos Radio. Sonos also has a night mode and a speech enhancement feature that it implements on its speakers.

The new Beam is up for pre-order now for $649 CAD and will be available for everyone on October 5th.

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Mobile Syrup

Here’s how to watch Apple’s iPhone 13 event

It’s officially time for Apple’s big fall hardware event.

Taking place today at 10am PT/1pm ET, the ‘California Streaming’ showcase will be streamed on Apple’s website, through the Apple TV app and Apple’s YouTube channel.

We’ll also cover the event live on MobileSyrup, so stay tuned to our homepage, as well as Twitter and Facebook.

The highlight of the show will be the iPhone 13, but we’ll also likely the next iteration of the Apple Watch and AirPods. A detailed breakdown of what to expect from the event can be found here.

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Mobile Syrup

Play as Marvel villain Carnage in the latest season of Fortnite

Marvel villain, Carnage, is coming to Fortnite. 

The skin will be available as part of the game’s Battle Pass Chapter 2, Season 8, which launched on September 13th.

To unlock Carnage, players need to complete quests and take down enough players in Battle Royale mode to gain experience. Similar to past special skins, Carnage is unlocked at the end of this Battle Pass.

Carnage’s inclusion comes just weeks before the movie release of the Venom sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage. In the upcoming movie, Woody Harrelson plays Cletus Kasady’s symbiote, Carnage.

At this point, Marvel-Fortnite crossovers have grown pretty common. For example, Carnage joins Wolverine, Iron Man, Thor, Thanos and Black Panther.

Source: Fortnite

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Mobile Syrup

There’s actually a working PlayStation 4 emulator now

The world of video game console emulation is fascinating.

While the majority of emulation communities are focused on what most would consider retro consoles, including systems of yesteryear like the Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, Super Nintendo (SNES) and Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), in 2019, a new Linux-based emulator called Spine appeared on the scene.

Like all emulators, the app essentially mimics the hardware featured in Sony’s PS4 through software, allowing it to run games designed for the console. Fast-forward to now and the team behind Spine says that roughly 300 games are compatible with the software, but that they’re primarily 2D titles that don’t require significant hardware power — from the looks of it, a lot of games seem pretty glitchy as well. This means that you won’t be playing God of War or Spider-Man: Miles Morales through Spine anytime soon.

After glancing at the list of compatible titles, there really aren’t any notable titles that I’m personally interested in playing, but that’s not really the point of emulation in the first place — the aim is video game preservation, at least in theory 👀.

With all of this in mind, it’s also important to note that Spine doesn’t feature a user interface, firmware or game files (you’ll have to *acquire* that data yourself).

Still, as the video game industry continues to move towards digital stores, emulators like Spine will become increasingly important because, at least in some cases, they could be the only way to preserve certain titles.

Via: Tom’s Hardware

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Mobile Syrup

Ryan Reynolds’ Wrexham soccer team is coming to FIFA 22

EA has announced that FIFA 22 will feature Wrexham AFC, the Welsh soccer team co-owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

To celebrate, the official Wrexham Twitter account shared a brief video with Reynolds and McElhenney.

The FIFA series typically only includes teams from English Football’s League Two, which Wrexham isn’t a part of. However, it seems that the stars of Deadpool and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia helped make it happen. Reynolds and McElhenney have said that part of their goal in acquiring the club was to make it more of a global brand.

Wrexham will be found in FIFA 22‘s ‘Rest of World’ category, which includes an assortment of clubs that aren’t members of a major FIFA-signed league.

FIFA 22 is developed by EA Vancouver and will release on consoles and PC on October 1st.

Image credit: Wrexham FC

Via: Eurogamer

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Mobile Syrup

Google Messages upcoming feature automatically reminds users about unread texts

Google Messages is the main Android app for messages that is automatically downloaded on most Android devices.

A new APK Teardown by XDA Developers indicates that the popular app will soon “nudge” users if they have an unread text message. According to the report, the update’s description reads,”messages you might have forgotten to respond to.”

Additionally, messages that “nudge” the user are pushed to the top of your conversations list automatically.

In the teardown, XDA was able to make “Nudges” appear in the settings and says that the feature offers a couple of toggles, including the following:

  • Suggest messages to reply to: Messages you might have forgotten to respond to will appear at the top of your inbox.
  • Suggest messages to follow up on: Messages you might need to follow up on will appear at the top of your inbox.

The Messages app currently lets users manually set reminders for different messages and threads. However, the ‘Nudges’ feature will automatically remind users, which is a bit more useful.

The functionality isn’t available in the Message beta yet, but it will likely be making its way there sooner than later.

Source: XDA Developers 

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Mobile Syrup

iPhone taking blurry photos? Your hog could be to blame

Apple is cautioning customers that exposing your iPhone to vibrations from motorcycle engines can cause permanent damage to the device camera’s image stabilization and focus features.

According to a new support document released by the company, “long-term direct exposure to high-amplitude vibrations within certain frequency ranges may degrade the performance of these systems and lead to reduced image quality for photos and videos.”

The specific systems in question are the camera’s optical image stabilization (OIS) — which uses a gyroscope to reduce motion blur, even if your hands are shaky — and the closed-loop autofocus (AF) — which keeps images looking sharp via magnetic sensors that measure vibration and gravity.

The document specifically identifies “high-power motorcycle engines” as the main culprit, and recommends that you never attach your iPhone to the chassis or handlebars of a motorcycle.

In the case of quieter vehicles, like mopeds and scooters, they suggest using a vibration-dampening mount to lessen the risk.

While this formal warning from Apple is new, the problem appears to be a longstanding one.

The support document was published on September 10th, 2021, but MacRumors noted that Apple users have been discussing the issue in online forum posts dating back to 2019.

This is the second customer support issue from Apple in recent weeks.

On August 28th, the tech giant announced it was launching a new service program to repair broken earpieces on its iPhone 12 and 12 Pro devices.

Source: MacRumors

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Mobile Syrup

Apple releases OS updates to fix spyware hack uncovered by University of Toronto researchers

Just ahead of Apple’s iPhone 13 reveal event, the tech giant has released iOS 14.8, iPadOS 14.8, watchOS 7.6.2 and macOS Big Sur 11.6 to solve a pair of significant security issues affecting several of its devices.

All four updates don’t add new features to their respective devices’ operating systems but include important security fixes. The first fix relates to iOS’, iPadOS’ and macOS’ CoreGraphics framework and the other is tied to Apple’s WebKit browser feature.

Pegasus security update

Apple says that it became aware of vulnerabilities that take advantage of these frameworks to run malicious code. For example, regarding the CoreGraphics exploit, apple mentions that a “maliciously crafted PDF” could lead to “arbitrary code execution.”

According to The Washington Post, one of the flaws was uncovered by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab and is linked directly to Pegasus spyware. Alongside Apple, Citizen Lab advises Apple users to update their devices as soon as possible.

Check out Citizen Lab’s website for a very detailed breakdown of the exploits.

Source: Apple, The Washington Post

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Mobile Syrup

Google Assistant Driving Mode may finally come to fruition in Android 12

After years of teases and a boring twist that turned it into a Google Maps feature, Google Assistant’s ‘Driving Mode’ might finally start to look like Google promised it would all the way back in 2019.

Since Google first announced it as a replacement for the on-phone version of Android Auto, the company has slowly released more multi-tasking within Google Maps — at least until now. With Android 12, you can say “Driving mode,” and your phone will shift into a simplified layout that’s more suited to driving.

That said, this worked for me the first two times I tried it, and then after that, it just kicked me to the Google Maps Driving Mode every other time. Also, whenever I tried to navigate somewhere in the app, it pushed me to Google Maps.

At the top, there’s either a search bar for you to use to set a nav point or a suggested route. Below, there are several music/podcast recommendations and buttons to send a message or call.

There’s a slimmed-down app drawer at the very bottom of the screen and a button to trigger Google Assistant.

Overall, it looks a lot cleaner than either Android Auto or the Assistant mode in Google Maps. It’s also worth noting that there’s a ‘Now Playing’ section that allows you to control the playback or shuffle your songs when you’re playing music.

If Google implemented buttons for some quick locations at that top of the screen, this would be a perfect Android Auto replacement for many people since, at its core, it needs to be good at navigating people to places. However, as of right now, it doesn’t adopt your device theme like other new Android ‘Material You’ elements.

Source: Droidlife