Hydro-Québec’s website and mobile application are down after an early morning cyberattack on April 13th.
More than 12 hours have since passed, and it’s unclear how close the company is to recovering operations.
“The website was targeted by a ‘denial of service’ cyberattack,” the company tweeted Thursday morning. This sees bad actors disrupt an internet server by overwhelming it with traffic.
“It did not affect our production, transmission and distribution of electricity,” a company spokesperson said, according to reporting from The Canadian Press.
Cette nuit, le site web d’Hydro-Québec a été ciblé par une cyberattaque de type « déni de service », ce qui a entraîné la fermeture de notre site Internet, de l’Espace client (incluant Info-Pannes) et l’Application Hydro-Québec.
Nos systèmes de protection ont rapidement détecté…
Pro-Russian group NoName057 (16) has taken responsibility for the attack, but Hydro-Québec hasn’t confirmed the information.
CTV News reports the group shared a message in Russian through an online post, stating, “the website of Hydro-Québec, the company responsible for generating and transporting electricity in Quebec, was put down.”
Hydro-Québec says its first focus is to get its applications running again. “We will put our focus on getting everything back to normal, and then we will make our inquiries,” the spokesperson said.
A new poll shows the majority of Canadians are concerned about monopolies and the way they impact prices.
The data from Mainstreet Research shows 92 percent of those surveyed blame market concentration for higher prices across grocery and telecom sectors. A further 69 percent said current competition regulations are benefiting large companies at the expense of consumers.
Results are based on automated telephone interviews conducted between March 29th and 30th. The sample consists of 1267 adults residing in Canada and represents the country’s voting population.
According to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s 2019 monitoring report, the big three (Bell, Rogers, and Telus) controlled 91 percent of the mobile and internet services market, and Canadians believe this is a problem.
Polling results show 72 percent of Canadians aren’t confident the government is doing enough for affordable and competitive telecom services in Canada; the results label 44 percent as “strongly not confident.” A majority of respondents who felt this way reside in Alberta and Ontario.
“Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne just permitted the Shaw buyout, crowning Rogers the single largest company in our telecom sector in one of the biggest buyouts the country’s ever seen,” OpenMedia Campaigns Director, Matt Hatfield, said.
“These clear poll results should be setting off alarm bells in government offices across the country: band-aid solutions aren’t enough.”
The poll further shows 83 percent of Canadians believe the current costs of internet and mobile services are impacting their budget, with 44 percent labeling the action as significant.
At CES 2023, some of the tablets shown off by companies included foldable devices, such as Samsung Display’s Flex Hybrid. It’s rumoured that Samsung’s first folding tablet could become a real product later this year.
Twitter user @Tech_Reve dropped a tip regarding the tablet, stating that it could launch alongside the Galaxy Tab S9. Despite not being a reputable leaker community, the user also revealed the tablet’s name — the ‘Galaxy Z Tab.’
This isn’t the first time speculation has circulated about a foldable tablet from the company, with reports going back to August 2022 about the foldable device.
Although no word has come from the tech giant directly, the rumours are gaining traction, with some believing the jump from phone models like the Galaxy Z Flip line to tablets not being unreasonable. If select Galaxy smartphones can fold, why shouldn’t the tablets?
Regardless of if Samsung follows through, it will be interesting to see if anything comes from these rumours, especially with the company tinkering with the concept openly now.
Apple might integrate Siri into the iPhone’s ‘Dynamic Island‘ with the release of iOS 17. Since debuting on iPhone 14 Pro series, the tech giant has reportedly been looking at ways to support the new interactive notch better.
There’s been very little concrete information regarding iOS 17 ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in early June. However, one rumour from an anonymous analyst suggests Siri prompts will transition into the Dynamic Island. On Twitter, @analyst941 outlines how this could work in iOS 17.
Elaboration for #5: Many more notifications will be used with Dynamic Island, as well as a new Siri UI is being tested with it. Apple may or may not go with the Dynamic Island version of Siri
When discussing the expansion of the Dynamic Island, @analyst941 says, “many more notifications will be used with Dynamic Island, as well as a new Siri UI is being tested with it.” They go on to clarify that “Apple may or may not go with the Dynamic Island version of Siri.” This leaves the possibility that Siri may remain in the current state Apple offers now.
As it currently stands, users activate Siri by uttering the phrase “Hey, Siri.” This wakes Siri up in the form of the sphere emblem at the bottom of the screen. Users can then ask the assistant a question, make commands and complete other actions. It remains to be seen how a transition over to Dynamic Island will improve or drastically change how users interact with Siri.
Integrating Siri into the Dynamic Island and its pill-shaped design could help consolidate more of Apple’s systems and features. A localized area of the screen where notifications, prompts, and Siri can be pulled from could provide more screen real estate to the user when activated.
However, these are just possibilities, and it’s important to note @analyst941 isn’t a well-known leaker, though they are an active MacRumors forums user.
We’ll likely have a more concrete idea of what Apple may have planned for Siri as WWDC 2023 draws closer. The conference kicks off on June 5th and runs until June 9th. At one point, it was believed that Apple would reveal its AR/VR headset during the event, but that might no longer be the case.
Apple has announced that it’s expanding the use of recycled materials across its devices by 2025. This new commitment sees the tech giant utilize 100 percent recycled cobalt in all Apple-designed batteries.
On top of transitioning to 100 percent recycled cobalt, Apple will use magnets that will exclusively use rare earth elements. Plus, the Cupertino company has committed to using 100 percent recycled tin soldering and 100 percent recycled gold plating across all Apple-designed printed circuit boards.
In a statement released today, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “Every day, Apple is innovating to make technology that enriches people’s lives, while protecting the planet we all share.”
In 2022, Apple reaffirmed its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030. The designs across the entire Apple Watch series utilize recycled materials. The AirPods Pro are another sustainability-focused product that uses fewer plastics and rare earth elements.
The company is also making a firm commitment to eliminate plastics from the company’s packaging. Apple products have been steadily adopting sustainability efforts. In the past, Apple has removed the use of plastic wrapping in exchange for rip tags. In 2020, Apple removed the power brick from the packaging of iPhones. This measure is intended to reduce waste and allow Apple to create smaller packaging designs. The company also digitally prints labels onto the box of the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro, removing the use of labels and adhesives.
Apple is already using recycled cobalt across its devices. 25 percent of the cobalt Apple used in 2022 was recycled. However, that figure jumped from 13 percent the year prior. This upward firing trend is ambitious, yet the company claims it’s committed to the goal. Plus, devices like iPhones, iPad, MacBooks, etc. feature 38 percent recycled tin.
Apple is also leaning on its iPhone disassembly robot, Daisy, to help recover cobalt and other materials. The company estimates that since 2019, it has extracted more than 11,000 kgs of cobalt from devices thanks to Daisy.
Ubisoft’s upcoming Call of Duty-like free-to-play FPS (first-person shooter) XDefiant has been in development since early 2021. The game, which was originally called ‘Tom Clancy’s XDefiant,’ was rebranded to just ‘XDefiant‘ in early 2022.
The title is now ready to enter closed beta on Thursday, April 13th, and I got the chance to play it for a brief before the closed beta launches. Though I only spent a short amount of time with XDefiant, its variety of weapons, various game modes and unique maps helped it stand out in the crowded world of shooters.
The game offers several playlists, including ‘Escort,’ where you escort a payload to a delivery point as attackers, or prevent the opponents from doing so as defenders.
In ‘Zone Control,’ you attack or defend capture zones with your team. ‘Domination’ mode tasks you with capturing and holding three capture zones at once to earn extra points and beat the opposing team, while in ‘Occupy,’ you take and control a single capture zone that changes its location during the match.
Finally, in ‘Hot Shot,’ you collect bounties from fallen enemies, and the player with the most bounties becomes the Hot Shot, gaining speed and aiming stats.
At the heart of the game are its weapons. XDefiant offers a decent variety of firepower, including assault rifles, SMGs, shotguns, LMGs, marksman rifles and snipers, all with their own customization options, like different muzzles, barrels, optics, magazine size, grips and skins. I wasn’t able to unlock any attachments, considering that I only got to play the game for a brief while, but they seem to work similarly to mods in Call of Duty games.
Most of the maps feature a classic three-lane format and look well-designed for XDefiant‘s 6 vs 6 arena shooter gameplay, with a variety of familiar locations from Ubisoft’s other iconic games, like ‘Pueblito’ from Far Cry 6 and The Division-inspired maps set in post-Black Friday New York.
I played the game in 1920 x 1080 resolution on a 240Hz monitor with Nvidia Reflex Low Latency on Enabled + Boost, and most graphic settings on high. On those settings, I was able to maintain a frame rate of 110fps at all times, and I don’t even have a newer GPUs (I’m using AMD’s RTX 2070 Super), so the game does seem to be well-optimized. Using medium to high settings pushed my framerate up to the 160+ mark.
Since this was a closed beta, finding players to fill up lobbies took a while, but that’s unlikely to happen when the game is more widely available. Each player in the lobby gets to select their agent from one of the five factions, namely ‘Cleaners — Pyro Technicians,’ ‘Phantoms — Future Soldiers,’ ‘Libertad — Freedom Fighters,’ ‘Echelon — Super Spies,’ and ‘DeadSecs — Cyber Attackers.’
Each faction offers different abilities and ultras, and it’s up to you to find the faction that works the best with your play style. Essentially, victory is likely if all players on the team work together to make use of their separate abilities. For example, I primarily played as Splinter Cell‘s Echelon with the ability called ‘Digital Ghillie Suit’ (which made my character invisible to enemies for a short while — just long enough to flank and sneak in behind them) and an intel suit, which essentially reveals enemy locations.
To dominate in XDefiant, you of course need to be a skilled shooter, but you’ll also need to grasp all of the ways in which factions affect gameplay.
‘Cleaners’ is another faction that specializes in area denial with flame abilities, and is picked from Tom Clancy’s The Division series, while ‘Libertads,’ the rebel group in Yara from Far Cry 6, specializes in making the whole team better by using healing abilities. Then there’s the ‘DeadSec,’ a faction known for its cyber-attacking abilities, picked up from Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs games. DeadSec agents can hack and take over enemy hardware, and even lock them out of their abilities entirely. Lastly, there’s the ‘Phantoms’ faction, ex-ghosts from Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon. These agents use their advanced tech to defend themselves and their teammates.
Experimenting with the agents and finding the one that best suits your play style is important, and Ubisoft’s implementation of the faction system, with its varying strengths and weaknesses, is why I think the game will do well when it comes out. The studio says that it will continue to add to the diverse cast of factions and its characters as the game evolves.
Since the closed beta has no NDA, creators can finally start uploading content regarding the game, essentially creating hype for its eventual release. The closed beta server opens April 13th at 1pm ET/10am PT, and closes on April 23rd at 2pm ET/11am PT.
Additionally, Ubisoft is also kicking off the closed beta with an XDefiant showcase on its official Twitch and YouTube at 1pm ET with a special ranked mode showmatch. Ubisoft will also share a deep dive into game features, closed beta details, details about factions, loadouts, maps, modes and the seasonal roadmap during the event.
To be able to play in the closed beta, you need to register in advance at playxdefiant.com.
Tune into Twitch Streams, including the XDefiant Showcase on www.twitch.tv/ubisoft, and you will also have the opportunity to receive game access drops. To qualify for the drops, all you need to do is watch a partnered streamer for 30 minutes or more.
There is currently no release date for XDefiant. When it does release, XDefiant will be available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S. Xbox One, PC and Amazon Luna.
Ubisoft’s game subscription service, Ubisoft+, is now available on Xbox consoles.
Ubisoft first announced that the service would be coming to Xbox in January 2022, so it’s been over a year before it finally happened. With Ubisoft+, subscribers gain on-demand access to a catalogue of dozens of Ubisoft titles, as well as 10 percent off in-game currencies.
At launch, Ubisoft+ on Xbox offers more than 60 games:
Anno 1800 (Xbox Series X|S only)
Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (includes Assassin’s Creed Liberation)
Assassin’s Creed Unity (Gold Edition)
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ultimate Edition)
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China, India, and Russia
Assassin’s Creed III Remastered
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (Deluxe Edition)
Assassin’s Creed Origins (Gold Edition)
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (Gold Edition)
Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection
Battleship
Boggle
Child of Light (Ultimate Edition)
Family Feud
Far Cry Primal (Deluxe Edition)
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (Classic Edition)
Far Cry 3 (Classic Edition)
Far Cry 4 (Gold Edition)
Far Cry 5 (Gold Edition)
Far Cry 6 (Gold Edition)
Far Cry: New Dawn
Fighter Within
For Honor
Ghost Recon Breakpoint (Ultimate Edition)
Ghost Recon Wildlands (Ultimate Edition)
Grow Up
Hungry Shark World
Immortals Fenyx Rising (Gold Edition)
Jeopardy!
Monopoly Plus
Monopoly Madness
Rabbids Invasion: The Interactive TV Show (Gold Edition)
Rabbids Party of Legends
Rainbow Six Extraction
Rainbow Six Siege (Deluxe Edition)
Rayman Legends
Riders Republic
Risk
Risk: Urban Assault
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game
Scrabble
Shape Up (Gold Edition)
South Park: The Fractured But Whole (Gold Edition)
South Park: The Stick of Truth
Starlink: Battle for Atlas (Deluxe Edition)
Steep
The Crew (Ultimate Edition)
The Crew 2
The Division (Gold Edition)
The Division 2
Trackmania Turbo
Transference
Trials Fusion
Trials of the Blood Dragon
Trials Rising (Gold Edition)
Trivial Pursuit Live
Trivial Pursuit Live 2
UNO (Ultimate Edition)
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
Watch Dogs (Complete Edition)
Watch Dogs 2 (Gold Edition)
Watch Dogs: Legion (Deluxe Edition)
Wheel of Fortune
Zombi
Ubisoft says more games will be added over time. As The Verge points out, however, this is currently well below the 100-plus titles offered on Ubisoft+ for PC. It’s also worth noting that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which offers hundreds of games from a variety of publishers, costs $16.99/month.
Overall, it’s been a quiet period for Ubisoft, with the publisher delaying its big pirate ship game, Skull and Bones, for the sixth time earlier this year while cancelling three other titles. At the time, Ubisoft also revealed that its relatively softer 2022 lineup, which consisted of the likes of Just Dance 2023 and Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, had failed to meet expectations. The company has also been toiling away at a variety of live service games, including crossover shooter XDefiant and multiple Assassin’s Creed titles.
That said, the publisher is set to hold a big E3-style ‘Forward’ showcase on June 12th where it’s likely to show more from several games, including 2023 titles like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Assassin’s Creed Mirage.
Taiwanese electronics company Asus aims to capture the attention of mobile gamers with its new mobile gaming phone, the ROG Phone 7, which marks the first instance of A.I. for automatic gaming capture.
The A.I. feature can be found in the phone’s “Game Genie” dashboard and is known as ‘X Capture.’ Based on the company’s own A.I. pattern recognition system, the tool can detect key events in supported games, such as “kills, deaths and victory moments.”
Get ready to meet the gaming phone of your dreams! The ROG Phone 7 series pack the game-winning power of the latest Snapdragon® 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform with ray-tracing hardware acceleration into an all-new futuristic two-tone design.#Snapdragon#ROGPhone7#ForThoseWhoDarepic.twitter.com/OMndVFZ9OK
Another new tool known as ‘X-Sense’ also makes its debut on the phone, using the same algorithm and notifications to help the user make live, in-game decisions.
While this all sounds pretty useful for enhancing mobile gaming experiences, unfortunately, both AI features currently only support the title Arena of Valor and only in markets such as Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand. Still, the product team is apparently already working on supporting more titles.
As for other features, the clip-on cooler from previous models is back and with an upgrade. It now doubles as a subwoofer — giving the phone a big push in terms of sound quality by allowing its stereo speakers to shine. ‘Vibration mapping’ has also been added, allowing users to add tactile feedback to their designed buttons.
Bundling everything that worked with the previous ROG Phone 6 and improving on it, including improved thermal cooling, an upgraded front camera and improved brightness for better viewing, the ROG Phone 7 looks to be hitting all the marks when it comes to a great mobile gaming phone.
The Asus ROG Phone 7 will have select models available for pre-order in Europe and Taiwan on April 13th, with Asus confirming that the ROG Phone 7 series will eventually be launched in the U.S., with no information on the date or pricing yet. It’s unclear if the device will make its way to Canada.
Microsoft could be looking into exploring the possibility of a Windows handheld mode for devices such Valve’s Steam Deck, after a leaked Twitter video showed what looks to be a prototype from the company.
The Twitter video posted by the user by @h0x0d, appears to show an early concept of Windows 11 UI for handheld devices. It also features a launcher and Windows gaming shell designed for touchscreens and controllers.
The video stems from a hackathon project inside Microsoft in September. The event usually sees ideas and projects presented by employees that sometimes end up getting support from Microsoft executives.
As echoed by the narrator in the video, the current option to run Windows on handheld gaming devices has been chock-full of issues. Valve offers drivers to run Windows on its Steam Deck, but with no dedicated launcher (like SteamOS has) and a hard-to-navigate UI, maybe it is time for an upgrade.
Further, some handheld gaming devices, such as the Ayaneo 2, already rely on Windows without optimization from Windows. This requires the companies to build their own interfaces and launchers to smooth out the process.
The video goes on to reference prototype handheld work done by a senior UX designer at Microsoft, Dorthy Feng. Most notably, it includes a launcher capable of opening games from Steam, Epic Games Store, PC Game Pass, EA Play and more. It also features a Steam Deck-optimized keyboard and a floating taskbar.
The prototype wasn’t the only thing to come out of the hackathon project, with another developer creating a way to use Steam Deck controls across Windows and Hayden McAfee, a senior software engineer for Microsoft designing a gaming shell for Windows.
The project resulted in drivers and services being installed, controllers beginning to work and a functional launcher. Although early, things are looking promising for an updated gaming experience with Windows.
If the work done on the project wasn’t enough incentive, the video ends with a call to action directed at fellow Microsoft employees to “get serious about handheld gaming on Windows.”
Although the demo is all we have for right now, don’t be surprised if you see Microsoft inch closer to its own handheld mode for gaming devices in the future.
Google dropped the first Android 14 beta for Pixels this week, and people have already stumbled across a significant bug. Those who use the ‘Themed icons’ feature will end up with a constantly-crashing ‘Wallpaper & style’ app.
Themed icons, for those not familiar, is a feature that transforms app icons to match the Material You theme on your device. For example, someone using a wallpaper that shows several leaves might end up with green Material You theme accents – using Themed icons will make all supported icons match the theme using a similar green colour. (Emphasis on supported, since the one or two icons that don’t support theming will stick out like a sore thumb.)
Unfortunately for people rocking Themed icons on their Pixel phone before making the leap to the Android 14 beta, Themed icons cause some issues with the Wallpaper & style menu, causing it to instantly crash whenever you open it. While not that big a deal overall, it’s a somewhat frustrating bug because turning off Themed icons will fix the problem, but you need to access Wallpaper & style to turn off Themed icons, which you can’t do if Themed icons are turned on.
How to fix the issue
Thankfully, there are a couple workarounds available already. Android Police reports it has had success by simply changing the wallpaper, which you can do from another app if you can’t access Wallpaper & style (e.g. picking an image from your gallery to set as the wallpaper).
However, that only really works if you want to keep your icons themed and just want to change their colour. If you want to turn off Themed icons entirely, the fix is a little bit more complex. 9to5Google uncovered a fix, but unfortunately, it’s a bit of a nuclear option.
The fix in question is clearing the Pixel Launcher storage on your device. This will wipe out all your settings, including which apps and widgets you have on your homescreen, suggested apps, swiping to access the Google app and more. It also clears the Themed icon setting, which means Wallpaper & style will stop crashing (unless you turn Themed icons back on).
Clearing your Pixel Launcher storage does work – that’s how I fixed the crashing problem on my Pixel 7 – so if you’re desperate for a fix and don’t mind setting up your homescreen from scratch again, this is the way to go. To do it, head into Settings > Apps > All apps > Pixel Launcher > Storage & cache > Clear storage.
If you don’t want to clear your Pixel Launcher storage, all that remains is waiting for a fix from Google. It’s not clear how long that will take, though, and there might be more pressing issues the company is focusing on for the beta.
As far as bugs go, this one really isn’t that bad, though it is annoying. Bugs are also to be expected in a beta, so as usual, it’s probably not worth messing around with it unless you’re prepared to deal with these types of issues. That said, this is the worst issue I’ve encountered with the Android 14 beta so far on my Pixel 7, aside from some apps and games crashing.
