Google’s Messages app is now getting support for encrypted group chats.
The much-anticipated feature appears to be rolling out as part of a Messages update and has been spotted by several people online as well as publications like Android Police. Those seeing the feature are running Messages version ‘20230329_00_RC01.phone_dynamic’ — you can check the encryption status of a group chat by opening the chat, tapping the three-dot icon in the top-right corner, tapping ‘Group details’ and looking for the ‘End-to-end encryption’ section.
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) rollout for group chats is a major milestone for Google Messages and the Rich Communication Services (RCS) platform. E2EE is an important privacy and security feature offered by many of the most popular messaging services, and it prevents messages from being decoded by a third party. RCS lacked E2EE when it launched, but Google added it for one-to-one messages in 2021. That, unfortunately, left group chats vulnerable.
Android Police notes the rollout seems to be fairly widespread, although Google hasn’t made an official announcement yet. Ultimately, it’s great to see E2EE in RCS becoming more widely available. Many people stick with the default options on their phones — if the default messaging option offers better security, that’s a win for everyone.
Acer has announced new Predator gaming laptops that feature some of the most powerful chips and GPUs available on the market today, alongside new gaming desktops and monitors.
Many of the new products were first revealed at CES 2023, and will be available in Canada within the next six months. Check out some of the new releases below:
Predator gaming laptops
Acer has announced new Predator gaming laptops that feature some of the most powerful chips and GPUs available on the market today.
The Predator Triton 17 X is a thin, mobile workhorse that’s less than an inch thick and can be configured with up to a 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900HX processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPU. It also has an option for a WQXGA mini-LED (AmLED) display with a 250Hz refresh rate. The Predator Triton 17 X will be available in North America in May, starting at $5,199.99 CAD.
The Predator Triton 14 is designed for work or play and includes up to a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700H processor and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 or 4050 Laptop GPU. It also adds a new panel option: a WQXGA (2560 x 1600) mini LED display with a fast and responsive 250Hz refresh rate. The Predator Triton 14 will be available in North America in May, starting at $1,999.99 CAD.
Next in line is the affordably priced new Predator Helios Neo 16, which includes high-performance 13th Gen Intel Core HX processors paired with up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU. There will be two design IDs for this new line. The US will offer a minimalist design exclusively through Best Buy, and for the rest of the world, Acer will offer a design that includes laser-etched encrypted codes on the lid. The Predator Helios Neo 16 will be available in North America in May, starting at $1,599.99 CAD.
Lastly, the Predator Helios 3D 15 SpatialLabs Edition allows for glasses-free, stereoscopic 3D gaming. It supports the powerful 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900HX processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU. It will include up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR5 – 4800 MHz RAM and up to a 2 TB PCIe NVMe SSD. The line offers several different panel options, including a WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS display at 165 Hz and 3 ms response time and a WUXGA (1920 x 1200) display with a 165 Hz refresh rate covering 100 percent of the sRGB colour range. The Predator Helios 3D 15 will be available in North America in June, starting at $4,699.99 CAD.
Predator Triton 17 X
Predator Triton 14
Predator Helios 3D 15
Predator Helios Neo 16
Gaming monitors and desktop
In addition to the new Predator laptops, Acer announced the new Predator Orion X gaming desktop with a sci-fi-inspired, DIY-friendly design. The desktop can run on up to a 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900KS processor and up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, providing high-power gaming performance in an upgradeable, compact chassis.
Alongside the desktop, Acer also announced two new gaming monitors. The Nitro XZ452CU V is a curved gaming monitor that delivers smooth performance with a 1500R Dual QHD panel, 32:9 ultrawide aspect ratio and 165 Hz refresh rate, while the Predator X34 V gaming monitor features a curved 34-inch OLED display, UWQHD resolution and a 175 Hz refresh rate with 0.1ms delay.
Pricing for the desktop and the monitors isn’t available yet.
On Thursday, April 20th at 7pm ET we have the Canadian Indie Game Awards, while Friday, April 21st at 8pm ET is all about the Canadian Game Awards. The former show is focused entirely on games from smaller Canadian developers, with the latter featuring a mix of those types of titles as well as those from larger studios.
The full list of Canadian Game Awards nominees can be found here. Meanwhile, here are the nominees for Indie Game of the Year at the Canadian Indie Game Awards:
Ring is a popular smart home device that provides real-time video and audio feeds of the front door, or back door. The Ring Video Doorbell captures video and audio of anyone who approaches your door, and sends an alert to your smartphone or other compatible devices.
This is the 2020 model and features a 1080p HD camera with a 160-degree field of view. The Ring also has infrared night vision, so you can see who’s at your door even in low-light conditions. As for audio, there is a two-way audio system with noise cancellation, allowing you to communicate with visitors at your door through the built-in speaker and microphone.
The Ring Video Doorbell is compatible with Amazon Alexa, allowing you to control the device using voice commands. It also integrates with other Ring products, such as the Ring Chime and Ring Alarm security system.
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MobileSyrup recently attended the NHL’s third annual Tech Showcase in Seattle, Washington, set against the backdrop of the Seattle Kraken’s game against the Anaheim Ducks.
This year’s NHL Tech Showcase outlined a straightforward narrative. Throughout the evening of live demos and speaking to officials, the league is clearly experimenting with the various ways 5G and cloud-based services can be leveraged. There’s an obvious goal to create a more engaging viewer experience for lovers of the sport while also discovering ways to bring in new fans. With this in mind, the NHL is partnering with several tech companies, including AWS, SMT, Beyond Sports, Hawk-Eye Innovations, MLSE Digital Labs, Imagen and plenty of others.
The partnership between the NHL and AWS appears to be the backbone of how the league intends to power its fan experiences. This was demonstrated on-site during the NHL Tech Showcase. For instance, AWS showed a live demo of its end-to-end cloud production. This program was piloted in full for the first time on location during the game. The NHL was able to produce a well-rounded cloud-based broadcast of the Kraken’s match against the Ducks. This broadcast effectively highlighted the technology’s low latency capabilities while incorporating the various camera angles, feeds and other features you’d expect from a traditional NHL broadcast.
“I think one of the things that makes this unique is that it’s live. What we’re showing is happening in real-time, with the technology you see in front of you,” Dave Lehanski, NHL executive vice president of business development and innovation, told MobileSyrup during a recent interview.
What was astounding was the promise of low latency being fulfilled without any discernible compromises. A live broadcast of the game was placed on screens surrounding the Tech Showcase. Comparing what viewers at home saw to the AWS cloud broadcast, there was perhaps one second of latency, if that.
This technology could be effectively used to create a much more efficient and sustainable way to broadcast live games. Julie Souza, head of sports at AWS, painted a picture of how these broadcasts can be operated without production trucks and leverage remote workers.
“Our technical director for that game was actually based in Madison, Wisconsin,” Souza says. “We had graphics editors and folks in Toronto and Vancouver. Then we had yet another person working in, in Madison, Wisconsin. So, people who were making all the magic happen, were not necessarily in the room.”
Additionally, AWS can pull in feeds, camera angles, graphics, and highlights from concurrent games running within the league in real-time.
The other half of AWS’ activation was focused on building accurate stats and delivering them in a way that’s digestible to the viewer. For instance, AWS showcased what it calls “opportunity analysis.” AWS is utilizing NHL Edge IQ to read and analyze data taken from the players in real-time. Data relayed via 5G can then be used to show stats such as shift time, possession time, top speeds, and overall game distance on the ice. While these stats will likely speak to hardcore fans, they can also provide tangible statistics for new fans to build their knowledge of a team and its players. “It lets us tell more interesting stories. This is why this is so significant. This is where this stacks up in the pantheon of hockey history, right? So, it gives you context.”
AWS is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to NHL and its relationships with partners. The league aims to broaden the consumption of its content through creative and engaging means. For instance, Beyond Sports attended the Tech Showcase to show off its AI-based platform. The company utilizes the data from a game and re-creates the actions of players on the ice, animating it in the process. This all came to life during the NHL Big City Greens Classic, which aired on the Disney Channel.
In collaboration with NHL, ESPN, and Disney Channel, viewers were able to see a fully animated version of the game. Targeting a younger audience, Beyond Sports sees a future in which hockey can be accessible to kids across various platforms. Sander Schouten, the co-founder of Beyond Sports, tells us, “We do linear videos. Though, we can also go directly into Roblox and Fortnite as well.”
In 2022, Sony acquired Beyond Sports and combined it with Hawk-Eye Innovations. In an on-site demo, 3D recreations of the game were created using Hawk-Eye’s tech. The company is able to collect enough data to articulate 29 points on the player as well as five points from the hockey stick. This leads to a more accurate and malleable skeleton to use in recreations. Theoretically, digital recreations can be created, better mirroring the real-world game. This could lead to more immersive avatars or metaverse integrations down the road.
Toronto-based MLSE Digital Labs brought in its physical tabletop experience. Developed for in-suite use, this device capitalizes on NHL Edge for puck and player tracking. Essentially, the device is a touchscreen built into a coffee table. Those in a suite can look at player positions, face-off probability, top speeds, and an up-to-the-moment heat map. MLSE Digital Labs sees the future of this technology as accessible on the phones and tablets of fans in and out of the arena.
5G technology is still very much in its infancy, and because of this, everything shown during the NHL Tech Showcase is also in the early stages.
“Connectivity is the backbone of all of this,” Souza says. “Whether it’s 5G, private 5G, AWS Wavelength or other technology solutions, the connectivity has to be strong for this to happen.” As 5G and cloud-based innovations continue to be explored, it will be interesting to see how the NHL will adopt new innovations.
As it stands, the NHL is ready to revamp the hockey experience from a fan’s perspective. The core audience may not be ready to adopt second-screen experiences and smartphone app technology just yet. However, the NHL Tech Showcase raises a compelling argument of why fans and newcomers should keep close attention to emerging technology.
With the release of Octopath Traveler in 2018, Square Enix introduced with it a unique art style that it dubbed “HD-2D.”
The aesthetic has proven popular, with its mix of retro sprite art and polygonal environment+s. Ever since, many gamers have been clamouring for older pixel-based games to be remade in the new style. Square Enix has since used its now-infamous aesthetic on a remake of its own – 1994’s Live A Live.
3D Pixel Artist Dott has done exactly this – by creating a demo of the original Pokémon Red and Blue remade in the style of HD-2D.
The concept was created in Unreal Engine 5, according to Dott. The protagonist, named Red, can be seen strolling through his home town of Pallet. For many gamers, this was their first location experienced within the world of Pokémon.
The original Pokémon Red and Blue Versions were released on the Game Boy in 1998, and are responsible for launching the franchise into the North American public eye.
I first experienced the Kanto region on the Game Boy Advance, in 2004’s FireRed Version. It wasn’t long before I would go on to experience the original releases in all their charming glory.
For their part, Pokémon remakes are not uncommon, and so it is possible that Dott’s vision might one day become a reality.
Reddit has a long tradition of providing support for third-party apps, allowing users to engage with the platform using alternate clients such as Apollo, Infinity, and Relay.
The social media platform also provides a Reddit Premium subscription, which removes ads on its first-party client, among other perks.
Many third parties have circumvented the subscription model by providing a one-time payment to remove ads in their apps. Now, however, it looks like Reddit will begin charging developers for access to its API.
In a post on r/reddit, the company outlines a number of updates to its terms. It appears these changes are an effort to reduce lost revenue that third-party apps result in.
The popular WhatsApp messaging service is no stranger to user interface adjustments.
While the About section has previously allowed for more than one line of text, everything past the first line would get cut off when viewing contacts in list form. The update will now provide an extra line of text for increased visibility.
The latest update is now available for those enrolled in the WhatsApp beta program. The build is version 2.23.8.25, and can be installed through the Google Play Store.
Panic’s handheld video game console, the Playdate, was released in April 2022, and the company revealed that it sold 53,142 units in just a year’s time. That’s over two and a half times more than Panic initially planned on producing.
The company began taking pre-orders for the adorable indie handheld console at the end of July 2021, and was unsure if it would be able to move the 20,000 units. Customers blew that number out of the water within 20 minutes.
The Playdate’s demand is undeniable, but sometimes that can complicate things more than originally anticipated. Panic was met with a critical battery issue during the first batch’s manufacturing process, which led to the company switching suppliers and delaying the release of the console-with-a-crank to 2022.
Manufacturing costs were another wrench thrown into the gears of the Playdate’s production and sale, causing the console’s price to be drastically raised from $20 to $199 in April of 2023.
The company has shipped around 27,000 units and is confident that it can fulfill all preorders by the end of 2023. After that, Panic will look to start shipping the Playdate Stereo Dock, an accompanying charger/speaker combo for the console.
Those fortunate enough to get their hands on one of the quirky consoles will get access to a library consisting of 24 games, with over 400 titles available on Itch.io. Panic says that almost 40 percent of users have sideloaded games or apps onto the console. They have also released ‘Catalog,’ a built-in store for users to install games and apps.
For a company that’s faced its fair share of hiccups along the way, 50,000+ Playdate consoles sold in one year is an even bigger accomplishment than it sounds.
Microsoft is going to drop Twitter from its Microsoft Advertising plan next week, according to a new “Multi-platform: Social network engagement” post from the company.
“Starting on April 25, 2023, Smart Campaigns with Multi-platform will no longer support Twitter,” reads the page.
Because of the change, starting April 25th, users will not be able to access their Twitter account through Microsoft’s social management tool. They also won’t be able to create and manage drafts or Tweets. Additionally, those who use Microsoft’s Digital Marketing Center for Twitter wouldn’t be able to view past Tweets and engagement or schedule Tweets.
Microsoft added that other social media channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, will continue to be available.
According to Mashable, a similar email is starting to hit the inbox of Microsoft’s social management tool, warning that “Digital Marketing Center (DMC) will no longer support Twitter starting on April 25, 2023.”
Microsoft’s social media service was provided for free to advertisers and was prominently featured in Microsoft Advertising’s Digital Marketing Center dashboard. It worked alongside the platform’s social and search paid advertising tools, which helped businesses run and manage their paid ad campaigns on platforms like Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram, and Microsoft’s search advertising.
The announcement from Microsoft comes just one day after Twitter owner Elon Musk appeared at a major marketing and advertising conference where he attempted to lure brands back to the platform after Twitter lost half of its biggest advertisers following his takeover of the company.
They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time.
Musk doesn’t seem to be too happy about the development. In a tweet reply to the news, Musk said that Microsoft “trained illegally using Twitter data,” and that it is “lawsuit time.” If Musk does indeed file a lawsuit against Microsoft, it would be quite a big deal. One of the world’s richest men going after one of the largest companies would undoubtedly damage both Twitter and Microsoft. Further, just last year alone, Microsoft made over $12 billion from digital ads that were produced, operated, and delivered using its advertising platform. Removing Twitter access for advertisers is sure to reduce earnings for the software giant.
