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Mobile Syrup

Pornhub’s Year in Review breaks down this year’s Canadian stats and demographics

As 2022 is coming to a close, Pornhub has released its Year in Review wrap-up.

As the largest adult entertainment site, Pornhub reports it has over 150 million daily active visitors, and because of this, there’s no shortage of new trends, searches and interesting stats to highlight.

As part of Pornhub’s Year in Review, the site has provided a full rundown of stats pertaining to Canada. First up is the overall placement as far as traffic is concerned. Canada once again finds itself in the Top 20 Countries listed by traffic. In 2022, Canada fell to the eighth spot, overtaken by Germany. The U.S. is listed in first place, with the U.K. in second.

Time spent per visit is also broken down by Pornhub. The average time on the site per visit is estimated at nine minutes and 54 seconds, a decrease of 20 seconds when comparing 2021’s stats. Canada’s average falls slightly short at nine minutes and 28 seconds. However, Egypt leads the charge with 11 minute and 12-second average.

Next, let’s take a look at traffic per device in Canada. This year, Pornhub reports that 75 percent of Canada’s traffic is made by way of mobile devices. Desktop usage continues to dwindle, with this year’s usage at a reported 20 percent in the country. Tablet usage is firm at five percent. As far as operating systems worldwide, it’s a close race. However, Android users snuff out Apple with a 51.5 to 48.3 percent split. “Other” is listed as 0.2.

Image credit: Pornhub

Demographics is also a highlight in this year’s Year in Review. Pornhub reports that the 18-24 group encompasses 22 percent of Canada’s visitors. 25-34 make up the majority with 27 percent. 35-44 comes in at 20 percent. 45-54 lands at 14 percent. 55-64 tallies up to 10 percent. 65+ rounds out the demographics with a mere six percent.

Image credit: Pornhub

Another interesting metric to look at is the worldwide traffic of gaming consoles. Once again, PlayStation players reign supreme in this race. This year, PlayStation saw a 20.6 percent increase in traffic, putting the platform at 73.1 percent. Xbox’s traffic numbers fell this year, with the console now at 25.5 percent in second place. PS Vita and Nintendo (Wii U and 3DS) are listed in third and fourth, both at 0.8 percent, respectively.

Speaking of video games, Pornhub has a laundry list of ‘Most Searched Video Game Characters.’ The top five include ‘Overwatch Dva,’ ‘Minecraft Jenny Mod,’ Overwatch Widowmaker,’ ‘Resident Evil Lady Dimitrescu,’ and ‘Overwatch Mercy.’ The top five ‘Most Searched Video Games’ include Fortnite, Overwatch, Genshin Impact, Minecraft and Pokemon.

Finally, Pornhub reveals the ‘World’s Most Viewed Categories.’ In Canada, ‘Lesbian’ is the country’s most searched category. It just so happens that the category is also in first place in ‘Most Viewed Categories of 2022.’

More details on Pornhub’s Year in Review can be found on its website.

It should be noted that Pornhub’s parent company MindGeek was founded in Quebec. In 2020, the platform removed content from unverified users following a New York Times investigation that revealed several inappropriate and illegal videos, including some involving minors. Visa and Mastercard then cut ties with all of Mindgeek’s websites.

Image credit: Pornhub

Source: Pornhub

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Mobile Syrup

Google Camera app update adds macro mode to Pixel 7 Pro

Google Camera is receiving a software update that introduces new settings for the Pixel 7 Pro’s ultra-wide camera. Users can now toggle whether they want to use its macro mode automatically or not.

When the Pixel 7 Pro launched, users found the camera array’s macro setting to be a bit unintuitive. Google is now hoping to mitigate that with a new Macro Focus setting, giving user’s more control of their device. Google Camera ‘version 8.7.250’ adds Macro Focus to the app’s quick settings. Delving into this option, users can swap between three available preferences: ‘On,’ ‘Auto’ and ‘Off.’

Previously, Google Camera’s use of the macro mode was automatic. This means that if a user tried to get a close-up shot of a subject and moved too close, it would automatically initiate the mode. The only way around this was to swap to Google Camera’s regular mode setting manually. The Auto option closely resembles the previously mentioned method of using the macro mode.

However, a dedicated On/Off option gives users way more agency when they are taking photos. Before, users could only toggle the automatic mode off and on within the Camera app’s settings. However, to lock the use of Pixel 7 Pro’s macro mode, users had to hit the icon that appears in the middle of the viewfinder. Overall, it made for a very unintuitive process.

Google Camera Version 8.7.250 also removes the ability to double tap the viewfinder to zoom in or out for 2x. This gesture is slowly being removed from other Pixel devices. Therefore, it’s no surprise that Google is removing it from the Pixel 7 series as well. Instead, users can do a pinch-to-zoom gesture or hit the on-screen button near the shutter to replicate this feature.

The update is steadily rolling out across the Play Store for users. Double-check that it’s available and see if you have access to the new Auto settings for macro mode.

Via: Android Police

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Mobile Syrup

Pixel phones will remember to keep Wi-Fi on in Airplane mode

Arriving alongside Google’s latest Pixel drop is a feature I don’t think many noticed exists. 9to5Google spotted a new setting that allows users to keep Wi-Fi on by default when airplane mode is on.

Before, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi turned off when you turned on airplane mode. However, following the update, once you switch Wi-Fi back on after starting airplane mode, the phone remembers this preference and leaves Wi-Fi on in the future.

The first time you turn Wi-Fi or Bluetooth on in airplane mode, you’ll see an Android system notification that says, “If you keep Bluetooth on, it will stay on the next time you’re in airplane mode.” Then, the next time you are on a plane, it’ll say, “Your phone remembers to keep Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on in airplane mode. To change this, turn them off.”

It’s helpful that the device now remembers your choices, but I don’t think this feature is necessary because airplane Wi-Fi typically sucks and is expensive. Who is trying to use awful airplane Wi-Fi on their Pixel smartphone? Maybe on a laptop, but logging in from a smartphone is far less likely.

Google says this feature will work on Android 11 devices and up.

This feature released alongside the December Pixel Feature Drop.

Source: Google Via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Android updates set to get faster with improvements to seamless updates

Android updates may soon get a little faster for people using devices that support seamless updates.

Seamless updates, for those unfamiliar with the feature, were introduced back in 2016. It manages updates across multiple partitions, allowing Android to download and install new updates in the background without disrupting the user. Once everything’s ready to go, users simply reboot the smartphone, and Android starts up on the new, updated partition.

Google’s Pixel phones use the seamless updates feature, but not every manufacturer has gotten on board. Notably, Samsung hasn’t adopted seamless updates.

Anyway, Esper senior technical editor Mishaal Rahman spotted some changes coming to the seamless update system that should help speed things up. Per Rahman’s tweets, Googe is moving the writing of COW operations to batches, which means they will finish faster. Second, seamless updates will start using two threads for running compression.

With those two pieces in place, seamless updates should happen significantly faster. For example, the installation time for a ‘full’ 2.2GB update would drop from 23 minutes to 13 minutes, while a smaller ‘incremental’ update sized at 376MB would drop from 22 minutes to 16 minutes.

Unfortunately, it’s not entirely clear when these changes will hit Android devices. Regardless, it’s good to see Google improving on basic systems like this. These updates may not be flashy, but they’re important.

Source: Mishaal Rahman (Twitter) via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Personal Routines suddenly vanished from Google Home app for some

Google is in the process of revamping its Home app for controlling smart home devices. However, as with any major change like this, there are sure to be some issues — currently, one major flaw plaguing users of both the regular Google Home app and the preview version of the refreshed app is an inability to launch Personal Routines.

For those not familiar with Google Home’s Routines, they allow users to create custom automations for their smart home. Routines come in two flavours — Household and Personal. The former applies to, well, your household and can include things like scheduled or automatic actions that take place based on the time of day or if certain events happen, like if someone turns on the TV. Personal Routines, on the other hand, are voice-based and occur with certain commands, like Routines that run when you say “good night.”

Reports across Google’s support forums and Twitter, as well as from Android Police and 9to5Google, say Personal Routines have outright disappeared for some Google Home users. This apparently happens after users try to trigger a routine with their voice. Household Routines remain available, however.

Along with disappearing Personal Routines, some users reported that the ability to add new Personal Routines is broken. Per a Twitter report, trying to add a Personal Routine results in a 404 error.

Google does seem to be aware of the issue and is looking for a fix, according to a community specialist in the company’s support forum. Anyone who encounters the issue should send feedback from the app with the keyword “GHT3 Missing Routines.”

To send feedback, either say “Send feedback,” to a Google Assistant speaker or open the Google Home app, tap your profile icon in the top-right corner, and tap ‘Feedback.’

Source: Google support, Twitter, (2) Via: 9to5Google, Android Police

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Mobile Syrup

OnePlus 11 alleged renders show off new camera bump

The OnePlus 11 has appeared in a new leaked render showing off a look at two different colour variants of the rumoured device.

The leak, which comes from @OnLeaks in collaboration with Gadget Gang, shows off the handset in matte black (Volcanic Black) and a pastel green (Forest Emerald) shade. There’s also a massive camera bump that features the Hasselblad logo, which has shifted from the left side of the camera bump to the middle and now reads horizontally. Further, the camera design is circular with three lenses and an LED flash.

OnePlus is also using glossy material for the camera bump, which seamlessly blends into the side of the device.

Further, OnLeaks and Gadgetmatch leaked the handset’s specs. According to the leak, the phone will sport a 6.7-inch QHD+ AMOLED display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, up to 16GB of RAM, a triple camera setup with 50-megapixel, 48-megapixel and 32-megapixel shooters, 16-megapixel selfie camera and a 5,000mAh battery. Feature-wise the device is expected to feature a 48-megapixel camera alongside an ultrawide lens, and the 32-megapixel camera will offer 2x zoom alongside some AI enhancements.

The OnePlus 11 is expected to launch sometime in Q1 of 2023.

Image credit: OnLeaks x GadgetGang

Source: Gadget Gang,@OnLeaks

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Mobile Syrup

Samsung, LG, other Android devices vulnerable to malware after security leak

Google publicly disclosed a major security leak impacting devices from Samsung, LG, Xiaomi and more. The leak enabled the creation of ‘trusted’ malware apps that can gain access to the entire Android operating system.

Shared by Googler Łukasz Siewierski (via 9to5Google), Google’s Android Partner Vulnerability Initiative (APVI) revealed the details, which you can view here. The main issue is that multiple Android manufacturers had their platform signing keys leaked. Those keys ensure that the version of Android running on your device is legitimate and created by the manufacturer. However, those keys can also be used to sign individual apps, which Android trusts by design.

However, a malicious actor with those signing keys could abuse that trust to give malware full, system-level permissions on an affected device since that device would see the official, signed key and, by default, trust the app. Since some manufacturers use these keys to sign relatively common apps — for example, 9to5 points to Samsung’s Bixby, which is signed with the company’s key on at least some phones — attackers could add malware to a trusted app, sign it with the same key, and then Android would trust it. Worse, this malicious version of the app could come from various sources — the Play Store, Samsung’s Galaxy Store, or be sideloaded.

Google didn’t say which devices or manufacturers were affected in its disclosure. However, the company did include hashes of example malware files, which were uploaded to VirusTotal. 9to5 notes that VirusTotal reveals the names of some of the affected companies, which include Samsung, LG, MediaTek, Szroco (which makes ‘Onn’ tablets for Walmart), and Revoview. There are more keys as well, but they have not been identified.

In the disclosure, Google recommends that manufacturers change their platform signing keys from the ones that leaked. It also urged all manufacturers to reduce how often they use those keys to avoid potential security issues. Moreover, Google said that Samsung and other affected companies took “remediation measures to minimize the user impact” of the security leaks after the issue was first reported in May 2022.

However, 9to5Google notes that Samsung used its vulnerable platform signing key in several Android app updates within just the last few days, based on details from APKMirror. It also remains unclear which Android devices, if any, are still vulnerable.

Moreover, while Google notes the exploit was first reported in May 2022, VirusTotal first scanned some of the malware examples as early as 2016. It remains unclear whether the leak and associated exploits were actively used against anyone in that time.

Google said in a statement to 9to5 that there are several systems in place to protect people from these kinds of security vulnerabilities, such as Play Protect. The company also said that “there is no indication that this malware is or was on the Google Play Store.”

To protect themselves, Android users should make sure their devices are up-to-date and avoid sideloading apps.

Source: Google, Łukasz Siewierski Via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Google Recorder for Pixel gains speaker identification functionality

During the Pixel 7 series’ launch event, Google claimed that the smartphone would be able to access Google One VPN for free in December. December is now here, and as promised, users have started reporting that they’re able to use Google One VPN for free on their Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro devices.

During the flagship launch event, Google also touted the arrival of ‘Speaker Detection’ and ‘Speaker Labels’ to the Google Recorder app. That feature also seems to be rolling out now.

After updating to ‘version 4.2,’ the Google Recorder app displays a prompt that asks users to enable the “Detect and label speaker” functionality. Tapping on ‘Continue’ to enable the feature further explains how it works, as seen in the screenshots below:

According to Google, the Recorder app analyzes your audio recordings to detect and label distinct speakers within your transcripts. To do this, the Recorder app does the following:

  • Computes models of the voices detected in the recording,
  • Gives each voice detected a generic text label (such as Speaker1, Speaker2), and
  • Compares the voices throughout the recording so the transcript can reflect what each voice said and when.

Users can edit recording transcriptions and assign custom names to identified speakers, while there is also an option to create and add new speakers when editing the transcript.

Google also makes it clear that to process the identification of different speakers, the voice recordings and models are temporarily stored on the device until the speaker labelling is complete. Once done, the voice models are deleted, and no voice data is sent to Google’s servers.

Although Google has started rolling out Google Recorder version 4.2 via the PlayStore, it hasn’t been widely released yet, as no one at MobileSyrup currently has the update.

Via: Android Police

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Mobile Syrup

NBA Clash game launches on Android and iOS

A new basketball mobile game called NBA Clash is now available on Android and iOS.

Developed by California’s Nifty Games and licensed by the NBA and NBPA, NBA Clash is centred around quick-session, real-time, player-vs-player matches.

NBA Clash features all 30 NBA teams and over 100 individual players, each of whom can use their own special abilities.

Check out the game’s launch player below, featuring NBA stars Jaylen Brown (the Boston Celtics) and Kitchener, Ontario-born Jamal Murray (Denver Nuggets).

You can download NBA Clash for free on iOS and Android.

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Mobile Syrup

Alleged Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra colours and cases details leak online

Samsung is rumoured to launch the Galaxy S23 series in early February with new camera features. Even though the phone series hasn’t been officially announced, that hasn’t stopped the well-known Roland Quandt from leaking details about the devices’ cases.

Samsung will reportedly offer a Leather Cover, Silicone Cover, Silicone Cover with Strap, Frame Cover, Clear View Cover, and a Transparent Cover for the S23 lineup. And for the first time ever on an S series device, an Aramid Cover (Kevlar). Additionally, the cases will be available in Black, Green, Camel (brown), White, Khaki, Navy, Orange, Cotton, Violet, Creme and more.

Further, it looks like the S23 Ultra’s stylus colours will come in Black, Green, Rose (light pink) and Beige, which likely represents the colour variants for the smartphone.

Quandt suggests that the Beige S23 colour variant might look similar to the Samsung EB-P3400 37Wh/1000mAh power bank that he also leaked.

As usual, these are only leaks and not an indication of exactly what will launch early next year. While Quandt leaker with a solid track record, I’d still take takes leak with a grain of salt.

Source: @rquandt