Category: Mobile Syrup

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Mobile Syrup

Pixel users could get separate ring, notification volume in Android 14

The second Android 14 Developer Preview has been out for a little bit now, but people are still uncovering new features and tweaks. One such discovery is that Android 14 splits the ring and notification volume levels, letting users have a loud ringtone for incoming calls and quiet notifications for emails and texts.

Of course, if you don’t use a Pixel, this is something you’ve likely had access to for a while (and even older Pixels offered this feature before Google did away with it). For example, Samsung smartphones offer separate ring and notification volume controls.

While certainly not a major change, it is a nice quality-of-life adjustment for anyone over the age of 50 who doesn’t keep their phone on vibrate.

Android expert Mishaal Rahman tweeted that Google has been working on separating ring and notification volumes for a little while, with the feature appearing in the Android 13 QPR2 beta. However, in the 13 QPR2 beta, users needed to enable a flag to get the separated volumes. Based on the reports about Android 14 DP2, the feature just turned on, with Rahman writing that it looks like Google toggled the flag remotely.

It will be interesting to see if the volume separation is enabled in the Android 13 QPR3 beta. If it is, then the change could hit devices as part of the June 2023 Pixel Feature Drop. Otherwise, ring and notification volumes might remain together until Android 14 arrives.

Source: @MishaalRahman Via: Android Police

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Ericsson launches quantum research hub in Montreal

Ericsson Canada has opened a new research hub to focus on quantum research.

Based in Montreal, the hub will be home to projects exploring “quantum-based algorithms for accelerating processing in telecom networks and distributed quantum computing.”

Ericsson is collaborating with the University of Ottawa and the Université de Sherbrooke and will pair its researchers with post-doctoral fellows. 

“At Ericsson Research, we are exploring future communications using quantum computing to build up what we call a network compute fabric, providing a unified, integrated execution environment for massively distributed intelligent applications,” Magnus Frodigh, vice president and head of Ericsson Research, said.

The quantum sector will play a big role in Canada’s economy. A 2020 study from the National Research Council of Canada estimates Canada’s quantum industry will be worth $139 billion and host more than 200,000 jobs by 2045.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: Ericsson

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Mobile Syrup

Today is Twitter’s deadline to switch from SMS 2FA or pay for Blue

Twitter is making changes to its two-factor authentication (2FA) method, the security feature that is designed to enhance account security by requiring an additional authentication method to grant access to the account.

Twitter wants users with ‘Text Message’ as their preferred 2FA method to switch over to authenticator apps, like Google Authenticator or Authy, on March 20th, as reported by The Verge.

“This additional step helps make sure that you, and only you, can access your account,” wrote Twitter in a blog post on February 15th, 2023. After March 20th, Twitter will still offer text message-based 2FA, but it will be locked behind the Twitter Blue paywall.

Users who don’t change their 2FA method, and don’t pay for Twitter Blue either will have 2FA removed from their accounts. According to the company, text message 2FA is the most insecure form of authentication, and phone-number-based 2FA can be abused by bad actors by using methods like SIM Swapping.

It’s worth noting, however, that disabling text message 2FA will not automatically disassociate your phone number from your Twitter account.

“We encourage non-Twitter Blue subscribers to consider using an authentication app or security key method instead. These methods require you to have physical possession of the authentication method and are a great way to ensure your account is secure,” wrote Twitter.

Learn more about 2FA on Twitter here.

Source: Twitter, Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

If you’ve cancelled your Netflix, the streaming service wants you back

If you’ve left Netflix recently because of its new password-sharing policies, you might get a new email from the streaming service. It looks like Netflix is sending emails to some of its previous customers, trying to get them to rejoin the service.

The service seems to try and get you back by targeting one of the shows you would watch.

This isn’t the strangest behaviour for the service, as we’ve seen carriers like Bell, Telus and Rogers do the same thing in the past. However, when the telecoms try and get you back, they offer users a deal. It looks like Netflix isn’t even offering its users a new join-back deal and instead is trying to tempt them with the new $5.99 ad tier.

On February 28th, MobileSyrup conducted a survey where we found that out of around 6,900 users, 46 percent of them left the service, which means that many people will be getting this new email.

Source: Sal Di Vittorio

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Mobile Syrup

Telus workers reach agreement, avoiding strike action

Telus’ latest contract offer has successfully avoided strike action involving telecom employees that are part of the United Steelworkers, Local 1944. But the union says, “Telus needs to do better.”

“I acknowledge that there are still areas in our union that feel neglected, and we must not allow for this to continue,” president Donna Hokiro said in a video statement.

The offer ends 16 months of negotiations that saw employees prepare for potential job action. The new deal will last four years and see compensation increase incrementally. It goes into effect on April 16th, 2023 and expires on March 31st, 2027.

“The road to the next collective agreement starts now,” the union said in a post on its website.

Telus’ CEO and president, Darren Entwistle, said the company is “pleased” employees accepted the offer, which balances the “needs” of several parties, including its shareholders.

“The ratification of this agreement secures a strong future for our team and enables us to focus on delivering outstanding experiences for the benefit of our customers and the many stakeholders we serve.”

Source: USW Local 1944, Telus

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Mobile Syrup

Netflix says it’s still ‘very early’ in development on its cloud gaming platform

Last year, Netflix said it was working on a cloud gaming platform to expand its mobile games offering, but don’t expect it anytime soon.

Speaking during a Netflix Games media briefing attended by MobileSyrup, Leanne Loombe, Netflix’s vice president of external

Leanne Loombe Netflix Games

Leanne Loombe

games, provided an update on the company’s game streaming. Per Loombe, the streamer is still “very early” in development on a cloud gaming platform, which is intended to expand the company’s gaming offerings beyond Android and iOS.

That said, she stressed that Netflix remains “very committed to making sure games can be played wherever you stream Netflix,” noting she’s bullish on cloud gaming technology.

Elsewhere in the briefing, Loombe relayed some other updates on Netflix Games. To start, there are currently 55 games on the platform since its launch in November 2021, with an additional 70 in development with external partners and 16 in the works at Netflix’s internal studios. Of all these titles, around 40 are slated for 2023.

Some of the upcoming third-party titles, which Netflix revealed for the first time during the briefing, include ustwogames’ Monument Valley and Monument Valley 2 (TBA 2024), Ubisoft’s Mighty Quest: Rogue Palace (coming April 18th) and an unannounced game based on a yet-to-be-revealed Netflix IP from Vainglory developer Super Evil Megacorp (TBA). However, Loombe that some of its first-party games are still in the “very early” stages, given that games “take some time to develop.”

The goal with building this catalogue, Loombe said, is to “have a game on Netflix for every one of our members.” Admittedly, the company isn’t revealing data on how many of its roughly 230 million subscribers are playing games, with Loombe simply saying “we’re super happy and super proud” of the performance so far.

Monument Valley Netflix

However, she noted that the data Netflix has been gathering from player habits helps inform its future gaming efforts. “Each one of those games has allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of what our players enjoy,” she said. “With that learning, we’re really honing into what our members want.”

For example, she said Netflix has observed three main types of games that players are gravitating towards:

  • Recognizable games (those from other platforms) — the Canadian-made TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, Immortality, Valiant Hearts: Coming Home (a new, Netflix exclusive title, but a sequel to an existing gaming property)
  • Daily Play (what keeps players coming back) — Solitaire, Kittens, Asphalt Extreme
  • Netflix IP (games based on existing Netflix movies/shows) — Too Hot to Handle: Love is a Game, Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales, Stranger Things: 1984

In fact, Loombe said the most popular Netflix game of all is Nanobit’s Too Hot to Handle: Love is a Game, based on the Too Hot to Handle reality dating show that’s going into its fifth season. She attributed this success, in part, to having the game readily available alongside weekly episode drops of the series. Loombe also teased that a new Nanobit Too Hot to Handle game is coming later this year alongside Season 5 of the show, although no further details were provided.

This coordination extends to games that aren’t directly related to Netflix IP. For example, Etienne Tardieu, senior director, business and distribution of Ubisoft Mobile Games, pointed out that Valiant Hearts: Coming Home, which centres around soldiers, deliberately came out around the same time as Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front, a recent war drama that just received nine Oscar nominations and took home four. He went on to say Netflix’s availability in almost 200 countries makes it appealing as a publishing partner.

María Sayans, CEO of ustwogames, echoed this statement while taking it one step further. The studio’s most recent game, Desta: The Memories Between, features a protagonist who’s non-binary, Afro-Caribbean, Mancunian (from Manchester, England) and pansexual, which Sayans noted doesn’t translate easily across different languages and cultures, especially those that use masculine and feminine words. However, she said “Netflix’s focus on localization of the highest calibre” for all of its productions helped bring the game to different countries.

Meanwhile, Kristian Segerstrale, CEO of Super Evil Megacorp, said Netflix Games’ lack of microtransactions or ads frees up developers to focus on the craft of game making. These monetization schemes, he said, “force certain design paradigms that fit with the free-to-play model.”

Loombe concluded by suggesting a few games that newcomers to the platform should try out: Krispee Street, Knittens and Asphalt: Extreme.

Netflix Games are available at no additional cost with a Netflix subscription.

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Mobile Syrup

Exploit with Pixel screenshot editor lets you un-crop images

The March security update that rolled out earlier this month included some fixes for major vulnerabilities on Google’s Pixel smartphone line.

There was a patch for an exploit with Samsung-made modems that could allow attackers to access data like phone calls or text messages using only the victim’s phone number. However, that wasn’t the only major vulnerability. The March update also includes a fix for a high-severity flaw with the Pixel Markup tool for editing screenshots. In short, the flaw leaves data in the image file that could allow malicious actors to partially restore images that were cropped or edited.

Dubbed ‘aCropalypse,’ details emerged over the weekend courtesy of Simon Aarons and David Buchanan, reverse engineers who uncovered the flaw. Aarons posted an image showing how aCropalypse can be used to recover an image on Twitter — the image shows a cropped, redacted photo of a credit card shared in a chat, and then the recovered image that includes the unredacted credit card number. Meanwhile, Buchanan posted a blog post with a technical breakdown of the exploit — if you’re curious how, exactly, aCropalype works, it’s worth a read.

The flaw has existed for about five years. Markup was released in 2018 as part of Android 9 Pie, so it seems like aCropalypse has been around basically since the beginning. Although the March security patch fixes the problem for future images, edited screenshots taken prior to the patch are still vulnerable.

However, it’s hard to say just how worried Pixel owners should be. Aarons and Buchanan have a FAQ page coming — though at the time of writing, it wasn’t live — that should help explain some of the details. One important piece of information the duo shared with The Verge and 9to5Google is that some websites, like Twitter, process images in such a way that they aren’t vulnerable to aCropalypse. Not everything is like this, though — the pair pointed out Discord as an example, which didn’t patch out the vulnerability until January 17th.

With that in mind, it’s probably best to assume any screenshot you’ve taken and edited on a Pixel phone in the last five or so years could be reverse-engineered to recover the edited parts of the image.

Moreover, the March patch only rolled out to the Pixel 4a, 5a, 7 and 7 Pro, with the update delayed for the Pixel 6 series (though it’s supposed to roll out on March 20th).

You can learn more about the aCropalypse exploit here or try a demo of it here.

Source: Aarons, Buchanan, Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Save up to 40 percent on Anker charging accessories

Anker is currently offering fantastic deals this week, with the company further reducing prices on their already discounted accessories, including portable chargers, plugs, and a diverse range of cables.

MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though we may earn a commission on purchases made via these links that helps fund the journalism provided free on our website.

Source: Amazon Canada

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EarFun’s Air Pro 3 earbuds are surprisingly good for under $100

For the last couple weeks, I’ve been rocking out with EarFun’s Air Pro 3 earbuds. For the price, these earbuds are surprisingly good, offering good, if not the best, sound and solid noise cancellation. While not perfect, it’s hard to find fault with the Air Pro 3’s, especially at their price of $89.99 in Canada.

Before we get into it, let’s take a quick look at the specs. The Air Pro 3 earbuds run on Qualcomm’s QCC3071 chipset, which means they support Bluetooth 5.3 with Low Energy (LE) Audio, as well as Qualcomm’s aptX adaptive audio codec.

Additionally, EarFun boasts its ‘QuietSmart 2.0 Hybrid’ active noise-cancelling (ANC) tech and ‘Ambient Sound’ modes for blocking out the sound around you, or letting it in when you need to be aware of your surroundings.

The EarFun Air Pro 3 buds sport six microphones for improved voice pickup and to reduce background noise, 11mm drivers, and an IPX5 rating, which means users don’t need to worry about sweat or rain damaging the buds. On the battery side, the buds boast up to seven hours on a share with ANC turned on, or nine hours with it off. The charging case expands listening time to 45 hours total and offers both USB-C and wireless charging.

Good sound and multiple devices

Overall, I’d say the EarFun Air Pro 3s sound good, though not the best. Across a variety of genres from pop to punk to jazz to metal, I found my favourite songs sounded how I expected, but I found the buds’ bass a tad overbearing. Though in some songs, like Busty and the Bass’ excellent ‘Baggy Eyed Dopeman,’ the extra bass only served to elevate the tune.

If you use the EarFun app, you can tune the earbuds through equalizer presets (or custom settings) if you’d rather cut back the bass. Ultimately, I’d classify the sound quality as “good enough” — as with most buds, if quality is your biggest concern, earbuds won’t cut it for you.

On another note, I actually really appreciated how good some podcasts sound with these earbuds. I’ve been on a big podcast kick lately, but thanks to the ANC (which I discuss more below) I was able to listen to some of my favourite shows without cranking the volume absurdly high just to hear over my surroundings.

Another thing that really impressed me with the Air Pro 3 earbuds was the ability to connect to two devices at the same time. While not exactly a new feature, many other earbuds that allow this have some kind of restriction, such as Apple AirPods only offering seamless connections to Apple devices.

I generally use my earbuds with my phone, but having the Air Pro 3 buds connected to my laptop at the same time made it super easy to swap between listening to music to hopping into a virtual meeting.

Speaking of meetings, the MobileSyrup team was pleasantly surprised by how good I sounded when using the earbuds in our remote meetings. Those six microphones were definitely putting in work.

ANC makes for a blissful commute, despite bugs

I, thankfully, waste significantly less of my time commuting these days than before the pandemic, but I still occasionally take a GO train into the office. But thanks to the Air Pro 3 buds, it’s easy to forget I’m sitting on a train.

While you may not consider the GO train particularly loud, once you’ve tried using ANC-equipped earbuds, it’s shocking how much noise the trains make. The earbuds really made the train ride significantly more relaxing and as much as I like the Surface Buds, I won’t be rushing back to earbuds without ANC any time soon (at least, not for using on the train).

Of course, the ANC isn’t perfect. I found the Air Pro’s seal easy to break, which significantly reduced the effectiveness of the ANC. Plus, with the AirPods-like stem design, the earbuds were easier to knock loose. Moreover, while the Air Pro 3 buds are comfortable, I’ve grown accustomed to using earbuds that don’t go into my ears and I find it difficult to wear the Air Pro 3 earbuds for long stints since the combination of the pressure on my ears and ANC makes them uncomfortable. If you’re used to earbuds of this style, it likely won’t be a problem for you.

I also found that some sounds were able to cut through the Air Pro 3 ANC. Going back to the GO train example, some trains with particularly high-pitched brake squeals seemed to mess with the ANC, causing a loud screech in my ears. For some reason, announcements on the GO train seemed to come through clearly as well, which was particulalry confusing because I often can barely understand the announcements on when I’m not wearing earbuds.

All that is without using the Ambient Sound mode to amplify sounds around me, which I generally avoided using because I really don’t prefer having earbuds amp up incoming sound.

To be clear, the ANC glitches were at most inconvenient when they happened, and generally weren’t dealbreakers for me.

Parting sound bites

Other than the odd ANC glitches and a few other bugs I’ll mention next, the Air Pro 3s were quite reliable. I didn’t run into any battery issues and was able to squeeze out plenty of listening time. Though my ears couldn’t tolerate seven hours of listening, I’m confident the buds would get close to seven hours as advertised.

I also really liked that the charging case offered wireless charging. That seems like a common feature, but my daily-driver earbuds have been the Surface Earbuds for years, and they don’t support wireless charging.

The biggest reliability issue I encountered while testing the Air Pro 3 earbuds was one day the buds inexplicably forgot how to pair to my phone properly. Only one of the two buds would pair when I took them out of the case. Ultimately I had to forget and repair the buds to my phone and I haven’t had an issue since.

Finally, the Air Pro 3 buds offer a variety of touch controls, though I could never keep track of which combination of taps and presses did what. Controls include adjusting volume, toggling ANC, skipping tracks or going to the previous track, play/pause, answering calls and more. Unfortunately, the touch controls don’t work with gloves on and even without gloves, I had a hard time finding the small touch-sensitive circle when the buds were in my ears.

All these things considered, for $89.99, I think the EarFun Air Pro 3 buds offer excellent value. Solid sound, good noise cancellation, battery life, excellent call quality, all for less than $100 is pretty great. Comparable buds from big tech companies can cost anywhere from $150 to over $300 without offering significantly more or better capabilities.

The EarFun Air Pro 3 are available on Amazon.ca and from EarFun’s website, though EarFun charges USD and shipping fees of $3-$10 USD.

MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though MobileSyrup may earn a commission on purchases made via these links.

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Prevent premature battery degradation with Lava Computers’ Charge-Check

Lithium-ion batteries are a part of nearly every modern gadget, and unfortunately, over time, they degrade.

Lava Computers is an Etobicoke, Ontario-based company that aims to protect your gadgets’ batteries from overcharging and degrading with a simple 60mm x 231.1mm x 45mm device.

Most modern smartphones are already designed with battery optimization in mind. Although they stop drawing power once they reach a full charge of 100 percent, the battery will still lose some power while it sits on the charger, not charging. This causes the charger to kick in again and restore the phone to full charge once it has lost some power.

If you leave your phone on the charger for an extended period of time, this cycle of power loss and charging will continue, leading to an increase in the device and the battery’s temperature, which can cause ion decomposition, off-gassing, and ultimately, battery swelling that leads the battery’s performance to degrade prematurely.

On the other hand, Apple offers optimized battery charging. The feature was first added to the iPhone with iOS 13. It essentially reduces the amount of time a device spends overcharging by monitoring the user’s charging habits. When the device is initially plugged in, the feature charges the iPhone to 80 percent before charging the remaining 20 percent within an established time frame. The software predicts when the user will unplug their device and starts the remaining charge an hour or two before that time, based on the established pattern. Google’s Pixel phones have a similar feature called Adaptive Charging that delays reaching until close to when a user’s alarm will go off.

It’s essential to note that optimized battery charging has its limitations too. In situations where the user does not disconnect their device at the expected time, overcharging may still occur. Additionally, the algorithm may take up to 5 days to learn a new charging pattern or establish an initial one. As a result, this feature is most effective when there is a consistent charging routine that is consistently followed.

Enter Lava Computers’ Charge-Check.

The Charge-Check is a small external device that aims to prevent your gadgets, including phones, tablets, speakers, cameras, controllers and more, from overcharging. It’s a simple plug-and-play adapter that is compatible with virtually any USB charging device.

The device uses what Lava Computers calls CABM (Continuously Active Battery Modulation). “CABM is a plug-and-play battery modulation technology built into LAVA’s u Series family of adapters. Designed to improve the longevity of mobile devices, CABM protects Lithium-Ion batteries from overcharging and swelling,” reads the company’s website. The feature monitors your device’s battery and waits for it to reach the trickle stage, where your device stops charging when it’s near 100 percent, but automatically charges again when a little bit of battery has been drained. This normally happens between 92 and 99 percent charge.

With Charge-Check connected, the device automatically cuts off the power supply when it detects your device is near 100 percent and allows the device’s battery to discharge. The main feature of the Charge-Check device is that you can preset the number of hours after which the device would allow electricity to pass through your gadget again and initiate its next charging cycle. This way, you can keep your gadgets plugged in 24×7 with minimal battery degradation.

The timeout length can be customized by the user between one hour to five hours. Essentially, once your gadget has reached near 100 percent charge, Charge-Check will cut off the charging and resume it after one to five hours, depending on your selection (default is three hours). The timeout time can be configured using a black button on top of the device, with custom inputs for different timeouts mentioned below:

The Charge-Check resides in a white plastic casing that doesn’t flex and feels durable. Further, it ships with a Micro USB to USB-A cable to connect to the power source. It is available to order now for $29.99 USD (roughly $41 CAD). Learn more about Charge-Check here.

Image credit: Lava Link