Tag: Phones

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Jay Baruchel to co-star in Canadian film about the rise and fall of BlackBerry

Iconic Canadian tech company BlackBerry will be the subject of a new film from Toronto-based independent distributor Elevation.

Simply titled BlackBerry, the film will chronicle the rise and fall of the firm, formerly known as Research in Motion (RIM), with a specific focus on co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin. Matt Johnson (Nirvanna the Band the Show) directed the movie, which is an adaptation of Losing the Signal: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of BlackBerry, the 2015 non-fiction book by The Globe and Mail reporters Sean Silcoff and Jacquie McNish.

A representative from Elevation also confirmed to The Canadian Press that Montreal’s Jay Baruchel (How To Train Your Dragon) and American actor Glenn Howerton (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) will co-star as Lazaridis and Fregin, respectively. The film, which recently wrapped shooting in Hamilton, Ontario, also stars Quebec-raised Saul Rubinek (Frasier), Toronto’s Michael Ironside (the Splinter Cell video game series) and Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride).

The film will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where it will be shopped to distributors. Therefore, those interested should stay tuned to the festival between September 8th and 18th for word on when BlackBerry may get a theatrical or streaming release.

All told, the story of BlackBerry is a fascinating one. Founded in 1984, the company started off with a focus on wireless data but branched out to consumer devices, particularly smartphones, in the early 2000s and achieved rapid growth. For a time, BlackBerry was the world’s most popular smartphone brand, until rising competition from the likes of Apple and Samsung ultimately toppled the Canadian company’s handset empire.

In recent years, BlackBerry has licensed the brand to companies like the now-shuttered OnwardMobility, although a planned 5G handset was cancelled earlier this year, making it unclear if there are any other BlackBerry phones on the way. Otherwise, BlackBerry’s main business now is cybersecurity, with its technology being used by automakers, governments and other bodies.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Variety

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Mobile Syrup

Koodo ‘Data Days’ return, offering 1-10 GB add-ons for $1-10/month

Koodo has brought back its ‘Data Day’ promotion, giving customers the chance to purchase data add-ons at reduced costs.

As first shared by RedFlagDeals user jshmeek, Koodo has been texting some customers about the offer, which allows you to add 1GB of extra data for $1 per month, up to 10GB for $10. This is a change from previous add-on deals, which required you to pick from preset data quantities, like 1GB, 2GB or 10GB.

Multiple other RedFlagDeals users responded in the thread to confirm they’ve also received the Data Day text. However, some Montreal users noted that they got a Data Day text offering the same deal for $2, not $1.

For what it’s worth, I’m on Koodo in Ontario and haven’t gotten any variation of this Data Day message. In general, it’s unclear what customers it’s being sent to, so your mileage may vary.

“To add an extra 1GB of data for $1 per month, reply FLASH1. For an extra 2GB for $2, reply FLASH 2 and so on up to 10GB for $10,” reads the text. The message adds that the deal ends on August 3rd at 11:59pm PT/August 4th at 2:59am ET.

Source: RedFlagDeals — jshmeek Via: iPhoneinCanada

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Mobile Syrup

Case or no case: Do you like to live dangerously or play it safe?

Over the past five years at MobileSyrup, I’ve reviewed several smartphones, laptops and even one TV. I’ve also broken a lot of displays along the way. At one point in my career, accidentally cracking screens was so common that it became very embarrassing.

So, a few years ago, I decided to become a smartphone case person.d

Every time I review a new phone, I always purchase a high-quality case, even when it comes to already hefty foldables. MobileSyrup managing editor Patrick O’Rourke adopts the same strategy, but he one-ups me by always putting a glass screen protector on his devices.

However, the self-proclaimed “Bad Boy of Tech,” Brad Bennett, hates cases, and as soon as he’s done taking pictures of a phone for a story/review, he removes the case. On the other hand, Jon Lamont is the most daring of us all as he never uses cases (except on the Pixel 6, because it’s so darn slippery). He says that whenever he drops a phone, they never break, which is insane to me.

For this week’s community question, we want to know if you’re a thrill-seeker who doesn’t use a case on your smartphone or if you like to play it safe and wrap it up. Let us know in the comments below.

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Mobile Syrup

Koodo Summer Sale includes deals on Samsung Galaxy, iPhone, and Pixel

If you’re looking to pick up a new smartphone from Koodo, the Telus flanker brand has some summer deals on now.

To start, here are some choice smartphone offers:

If you’re not familiar with Koodo’s Tab system, here’s a quick run down. When you get a phone from Koodo (for example, the iPhone 12), you can put a portion of the cost of the phone on the Tab and pay it off over 24 equal monthly payments.

Using the iPhone 12 as an example, the Tab Plus option lets you pay $0 upfront and $25/mo Tab ($600 total after two years). The listed ‘Tab Bonus’ is the amount saved compared to buying the phone directly from Koodo (the iPhone 12 costs $976, less $600 is your $376 tab bonus). Granted, carriers tend to price their phones slightly higher than what the manufacturer sells them for, but in the case of the iPhone 12 the math works out well: Apple sells the phone for $949, making Koodo’s Tab Plus deal not too bad.

If you’re looking for steeper discounts, Koodo also has ‘Certified Pre-owned’ iPhones available. If you get an iPhone XS, XS Max, or XR from Koodo, you’ll get a bonus $150 Visa gift card.

Finally, Koodo has a couple of promotional plans available, although they aren’t exactly new. First up is a $55/mo 8GB plan that is only available for bring-your-own-phone (BYOP) customers. The other is a $65/mo 15GB plan that comes with a bonus 5GB of data, making it a 20GB plan. That offer is new and will run until July 4th.

You can check out Koodo’s ‘Summer Sale’ here.

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Mobile Syrup

Nothing Phone design hinted at again, full reveal coming this week

Carl Pei’s Nothing startup has shared another teaser of its upcoming phone that shows off a tiny glimpse of the handset’s camera.

The company’s Twitter account posted an image of two colourful birds with the caption “Curious? So are they.” As beautiful as the birds are, the real star of the picture is the phone they’re perched on.

The phone appears to have metal edges like an iPhone 5 and comes in white, but that’s all that can be seen. It looks like there’s a camera lens on the left and some other sensors on the right. There are some rumours that the Nothing Phone may use a magnetic pogo pin design similar to the Essential Phone, but so far, that hasn’t been confirmed.

Following that, Nothing Co-founder Akis Evange quote-tweeted the bird image and said, “This week.” Nothing is holding an event on July 12th at 5 pm ET, which is a month away. However, the company has kept up a constant string of teases, so it wouldn’t be a massive surprise for it to reveal the phone’s design early.

There’s little known about the phone thus far beyond the fact that it’s made of recycled aluminum, will have no chin and also features a semi-transparent backplate. It will run on a Snapdragon chipset and use the Nothing Launcher, which looks very minimal thus far.

The company has also tweeted other bird pictures lately as marketing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this photo came from the Nothing phone, which is reportedly packing a 50-megapixel primary camera sensor. Other theories suggest that the rich colours in the bird hint toward a 10-bit HDR display.

Source: Nothing, Ben Geskin, Akis Evange

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Mobile Syrup

Acting legend Al Pacino uses an iPhone 13 with a Shrek case

While there hasn’t been a new Shrek film since 2010, that hasn’t stopped the internet from meme-ing the hell out of the green ogre for years.

Now, it looks like none other than Oscar winner Al Pacino has been getting in on the fun with a special Shrek-themed phone case.

On Instagram, Aquaman star Jason Momoa posted a photo of himself at a dinner with several other people, including Pacino, to celebrate a gallery opening for painter Julien Schnabel.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Jason Momoa (@prideofgypsies)

An unassuming photo at first glance, but naturally, nothing gets by the internet, and attention quickly turned to Pacino’s phone, an iPhone 13. Not only did the image confirm where the 81-year-old lands on the neverending iOS vs. Android debate, but it also showed a case with none other than Shrek himself.

Twitter user @cockagecore pointed out the case with a zoomed-in glance at Momoa’s original photo:

However, some were quick to point out that the actual image on the case is a bit hard to make out, so self-proclaimed Italian cinephile @katepenniman took it upon herself to fact-check. In this case, that meant going about as close to the source as you can get: Pacino’s daughter, Olivia.

In response, Olivia confirmed that her father does indeed have a Shrek phone case. “Yes it is hahah!!” the legendary actor’s daughter responded.

Interestingly, Pacino never lent his voice to any of the Shrek films or their Puss in Boots spin-offs, so it appears that he owns the case simply because he’s a Shrek stan.

Pacino can most recently be seen in last year’s House of Gucci, another meme-worthy film.

Image credit: Universal

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Mobile Syrup

Nothing is pushing tech forward with new ways of over-hyping products

Carl Pei took the stage to announce what’s new from his ‘Nothing’ startup and said, “tech companies aren’t on the consumer’s side anymore, and no one is innovating.”

Then he proceeded to show off a skinned version of Android, some LSD-fueled hieroglyphics and then asked the community for $10 million USD (roughly, $12.5 million CAD).

I’ll give Pei credit. He almost had us in the first half, but after building this much hype and then not revealing a product, he’s starting to come off as more of a salesman and less of the saviour who’s actually going to shake up the tech world.

But I guess that’s the promise of Nothing.

What we learned at the event (NOT THE TRUTH)

To start off, Pei dropped several fun stats about the Nothing Ear (1)s and the Nothing company in general. The wireless earbuds have almost sold half a million units in half a year, and there are now over 300 people working at Nothing.

He also clarified the company’s supply chain is ready even though a large tech company tried to block them. Regardless of that, Pei claims the company has large partners like Google, Samsung and Qualcomm on board to help push the first Nothing phone out this summer.

Carl Pei standing beside the Nothing Phone (1) symbol. This is all that was shown on the phone at the event.

The company even cut the presentation to give us a trailer showing off this symbol. I’m sure people will be unpacking it over the coming weeks, but to me, the bottom exclamation mark stands for fast charging, the symbol in the centre is wireless charging or some sort of MagSafe ripoff. Furthering my speculations, the top left ‘C’ is likely the camera, and the ‘/’ symbol is the antenna for 5G.

Perhaps this symbol will also look similar to the back of the phone since we’re expecting it to be transparent like the Nothing Ear (1)s.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Nothing (@nothing)

In his whirlwind of hype, Pei started talking about the phone by painting a picture of Nothing as the only true alternative to Apple and the enclosed fortress known as the Apple ecosystem.

The Nothing ecosystem, by comparison, will be open and designed to work with a wide variety of tech products ranging from AirPods to Telsa vehicles. However, he never really gave us any clear specifics about what this might mean. To me, it seems more like Pei is just trying to do a better job at marketing the openness of Android than Google is.

Nothing OS from left to right: Always-on display, the home screen, lock screen and home screen with Nothing widgets.

It was also hard to listen to Pei talk about taking on Apple and innovating in ways that we can’t even comprehend while showing off Nothing OS, which looks like a lightly skinned version of Android 12.

Sure the design is cool and uniform, but design is subjective, and while I might find this one cool, I’m pretty sure my mom isn’t going to be into the cyberpunk aesthetic.

A look at Nothing’s take on Android’s Quick Settings.

The Nothing Launcher for Android is going to launch this April, so I’ll withhold judgment until I can get my hands on it. Pei did mention that it will only be available on select smartphones. My guess would be Pixels and Samsung devices due to the previously mentioned partnerships. However, I’d be excited to see it running on an Essential phone or a modern OnePlus device.

The launcher is supposed to have minimal animations and a high level of brand uniformity. This just looks like a pixel filter on the app ions and a lot of dot matrix design elements to match Nothing’s logo. That being said, the company did show off a cool-looking recorder app that pushes the cyber-punk aesthetics much further than the launcher.

A few angles of the Nothing Recorder app.

Pei also promised smarter RAM management, but that’s only coming in the Nothing phone, not the launcher. This seemed like an odd thing to bring up on stage since most modern phones with 4-6GB of RAM seem fine to me. Perhaps the Nothing Phone (1) will truly feel faster or maybe Pei is prepping us for a phone with less RAM than its competitors?

Nothing is promising three years of OS updates and four years of security updates when the phone launches.

Image source: Nothing

Source: Nothing, (1)

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Mobile Syrup

Users report GPS issues with Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is the company’s latest premium device; however, new reports are claiming a weird issue with the handset. Some users have reported an issue with Google Maps (or other GPS-related apps), according to Samsung’s community forums.

The reports indicate that users are having issues connecting to GPS. Users are seeing a “cannot find GPS” error when attempting to use location services.

Some say that restarting the device makes it work for a bit, but then it will stop again. Others claim they’ve spoken to customer service and were told to wait for a software update. It’s unclear if this issue is affecting Canadian users as well.

However, there doesn’t seem to be an official response from Samsung yet. We’ve reached out to Samsung for any further information.

Source: Samsung Community Forum Via: SamMobile

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Mobile Syrup

Save up to $100 on select Motorola phones for Valentine’s Day

Motorola is offering Canadians discounts on several phones for Valentine’s Day. Savings range from up to $100 off select phones.

The deals run until February 13th, however, even though Valentine’s Day falls on the 14th.

You can check out all of Motorola’s Valentine’s Day deals here.

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Mobile Syrup

Google pauses Pixel 6 and 6 Pro December update due to dropped calls

Google has officially paused its December system update for the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, citing reports that calls were getting dropped or disconnected.

In a Google Support blog post, the company confirms that it’s identified a fix for the issue, although it’s set to be rolled out “by late January.”

This update will also include the 80-plus fixes and improvements that were originally slated for December, such as improved fingerprint sensor stability and performance, fast 23W wireless charging with the Pixel Stand 2 and ‘Quick Tap to Snap’ for Snapchat users.

Google says those who have already received the December update and are experiencing issues can use the Android Flash Tool to revert to the previous OS and factory reset their device. However, no action is necessary if you haven’t had any problems with the update.

Source: Google