Tag: tech

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Cottage Life

How will climate change impact your property? New real estate tool shows you

Photo by Shutterstock/2M media

Climate change is a reality that is overwhelming to tackle. But two tech companies aren’t shying away from the issue. Instead, they’ve created a tool that allows real estate buyers to see how the climate is expected to shift around their prospective property.

Montreal-based Local Logic has partnered with San Fransico-based ClimateCheck to bring Canadian buyers a climate risk assessment.

“Climate change is transforming the real estate landscape, introducing new and costly levels of physical risk to property,” said Vincent-Charles Hodder, co-founder and CEO of Local Logic, in a statement. “Home seekers can now assess an area’s risk for climate-related disasters and, using our suite of location insights, make more informed decisions about where to buy and how to mitigate risks from climate change.”

The new tool is currently being used by Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, Royal LePage, and REW.ca for listings across Canada.

“It’s looking at 2050, and it’s saying within the next 30 years, what is the forecasted climate impact on this area for heat and for storms,” said Pierre Calzadilla, Local Logic’s EVP of growth.

The tool covers a five-kilometre radius around the property and will tell you how many hot days to expect in 2050, what the average temperature of those days will be, how many severe storms will occur, and how much precipitation to expect.

For example, a home for sale in North Vancouver currently experiences seven hot days per year at an average of 27 degrees Celsius. That number’s expected to increase to 24 days in 2050, averaging 31 degrees Celsius. As for storms, the area’s expected to see a jump from 12 significant two-day storms to 14, with the precipitation per storm rising from 885 mm to 1020 mm.

As the climate changes, Calzadilla pointed out that many insurance companies are pulling back from high-risk areas, such as floodplains, and buyers aren’t always aware. “It just helps people understand that this is a real thing. People have to take into account that there’s nowhere to hide with climate change.”

Local Logic and ClimateCheck have been providing free climate risk assessments in the U.S. for several years, presenting data on heat, storm, fire, drought, and flood. Calzadilla said that the two companies are currently working on introducing flood-risk data in Canada.

On top of climate risk assessments, Local Logic also provides information about a property’s surrounding area. For example, suppose a young family was looking to buy a new home. Local Logic could tell them the average noise levels in the neighbourhood, how close schools are, accessibility to transit, and the ease of getting groceries.

The company’s ability to provide location intelligence makes it the perfect partner for ClimateCheck, which was founded to bring climate change information to real estate owners and buyers.

“Combining ClimateCheck’s granular climate risk data with Local Logic’s location intelligence insights helps real estate brokers, investors, and consumers alike understand how intensifying hazards like flood and fire might affect their properties in the future,” said Cal Inman, CEO of ClimateCheck, in a statement. “This knowledge empowers them to make smarter decisions about where they buy property and how they maintain or improve property to guard against mounting risks.”

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Cottage Life

Every charger you need at the cottage is on sale during the Amazon Prime Early Access Sale 2022

Our editorial team independently selects these products. If you choose to buy any, we may earn a commission that helps fund our content. Learn more.

Wouldn’t it be nice if every device you owned used the same charger? Yeah. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The next best thing is to have one of everything you can leave at the cottage so you don’t have to cart all your chargers back and forth every weekend. There’s also the added bonus of not having to worry about accidentally forgetting your laptop charger right as you’re supposed to join a meeting while you’re “working from home.” (We won’t tell.) Here are a selection of chargers you can pick up during the Amazon Prime Early Access Sale.

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Mobile Syrup

Apple is expected to slow hiring and spending due to recession concerns

Apple is planning to slow down on its internal hiring and spending. As concerns of an impending recession continue, the tech giant hopes to be cautious of spending as a hit to the economy may rear its ugly head.

Those familiar with the matter state that Apple will remain cautious about hiring staff for roles in certain departments. From the sounds of it, a pause in hiring isn’t a company-wide policy. Instead, it looks like it will be on a more case-by-case basis.

Interestingly enough, news of this comes following Apple’s strong endurance throughout COVID-19. Other tech companies and businesses faced difficulties throughout the pandemic. However, Apple was able to continue launching products and new devices.

Since the slowdown has been reported, Apple has seen its shares drop as much as 2 percent to $147.20 USD (roughly $191.07 CAD). Over the course of 2022, Apple’s stock has dropped roughly 17 percent. Though, the company is not alone in this trend. Competitors and other major tech companies are also facing declines.

Apple’s decision to slow down on spending is echoed across companies such as Amazon, Meta and Google. Each is said to be looking at reducing its own hiring and spending as well in the event that a recession impacts the economy.

Within Apple, each division is typically given an annual budget to spend on research, development, resources, and hiring. When looking at 2023, reports indicate that the company will be giving select divisions a lowered budget. For example, some teams won’t be able to increase staffing in 2023. Typically, many divisions see a 5 to 10 percent increase in a year.

It’s worth noting that Apple is said to be expanding into new ventures in 2023 with the launch of its long-reported mixed reality headset. However, due to the company not offering a comment on the matter, it remains to be seen if this division is being affected.

Earlier this year, Apple surpassed Wall Street’s predictions, earning $97.3 billion USD (roughly $124.6 billion CAD) and $25 billion USD (about $32 billion CAD) in net quarterly profits in Q2 2022. This was largely in part due to iPhone sales and services. Analysts expect Apple to report roughly $83 billion for Q3 2022. These results will be reported on July 28th.

Source: Bloomberg

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Mobile Syrup

Microsoft opens new Toronto headquarters, doubles down on its investment in Canada

Microsoft has officially opened its new headquarters in Canada, located in the heart of Toronto, Ontario.

Microsoft’s new headquarters is a 132,000-square-foot state-of-the-art office. It’s located at 81 Bay Street within the CIBC Square office complex. Toronto Mayor John Tory joins the company in celebrating the opening. Microsoft incorporates designs to “engage with the community and support Microsoft’s inclusive hybrid culture.” It has a Team Based Space that pairs innovative technology with collaborative workplaces, empowering employees.

“With the launch of our new headquarters, official opening of our Data Innovation Centre of Excellence and expansion of our regional presence, even more organizations of all sizes and sectors can leverage the power of cloud and data to accelerate their organization’s growth and drive new economic opportunity for Canada,” said Kevin Peesker, the president of Microsoft Canada, in a statement.

The Microsoft headquarters hosts an Envisioning Centre and the first-of-its-kind Data Innovation Centre of Excellence (DICE). The company explains that it enables company experts to co-innovate with clients and partners on “cutting edge data, AI and mixed reality technology solutions.” The new headquarters plays a substantial role in assisting local startups, students, and community organizations within the GTA and across Canada.

The opening of the new headquarters coincides with the release of EY’s research on Microsoft’s impact on the Canadian economy. The research states that Microsoft and its ecosystem contribute more than $37 billion to Canada’s GPD. Microsoft’s ecosystem includes more than 15,000 partners and nearly 300,000 Canadian jobs. Microsoft also supports 30 projects, valued at $190 million.

Microsoft’s impact on Canadian innovation and industry growth has been persistent. Over the past three years, Microsoft has doubled its Canadian workforce and employs 5,000 full-time staff members across the country.

In 2021, Microsoft donated more than $125 million in cash, software, and technology services to non-profits.

Image credit: Microsoft

Source: Microsoft Canada

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Mobile Syrup

Dell’s newest stylus features Tile tracking tech to help you find it

Source: Dell

Dell has a fancy new stylus with built-in finding tech powered by Tile.

As spotted by The Verge, the new ‘Premier Rechargeable Active Pen‘ works with the Tile app to help users find it when it goes missing. People can open the Tile app, tap ‘find’ and the Premier stylus will flash its LED lights and buzz.

This sounds like a pretty handy feature for something like a stylus, which could be easily misplaced. Of course, for a stylus that costs $139.99 in Canada, I would hope it could light up and alert me to its location.

As The Verge points out, Tile is working hard to expand its finding tech into just about everything. The company has worked with Intel to help track lost laptops, and the feature is now available on compatible HP, MSI, and Fujitsu PCs.

Moreover, Tile tracking can be found in headphones from Sennheiser and Skullcandy, Fitbit wearables, and even a dog tag.

Of course, all this is on top of Tile’s wide range of tracking products to help find things like keys and wallets.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that there are downsides to Tile’s tracking tech too. For example, the company recently added a tool to its app so people can scan for nearby, unfamiliar trackers that might be used to stalk them. Additionally, the new owners of Tile have a penchant for selling user location data, which isn’t great considering Tile’s ability to vacuum up that data to help you find missing items.

You can check out Dell’s new Premier Rechargeable Active Pen here.

Header image credit: Dell

Source: Dell Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Startup pushes smartphone photography to DSLR levels with tiny cinema lenses

Startup camera company Glass wants to improve smartphone cameras with a new lens technology that could, finally, allow phones to attain DSLR-like image quality.

TechCrunch details the system in-depth — it’s a great read if you’re a real camera nerd — but the short, digestible version is that Glass’ combination of a large sensor, anamorphic lenses, and neural networks makes for surprisingly excellent camera shots.

Anamorphic lenses aren’t new, but we haven’t seen them on smartphone cameras before. Anamorphic optics were pioneered in the 1900s, first to help record World War I and later in cinema, especially in the 1950s after Twentieth Century-Fox bought the rights to the technique to create CinemaScope.

Anamorphic lenses squeezed a wide field of view from the sides to fit on 35mm film. Then, when projected through an anamorphic protector, the process was reversed and viewers would see the desired aspect ratio. Naturally, this added interesting optical side effects, but that’s beside the point.

Example showing anamorphic (top) and symmetric (bottom) lenses | Image credit: Glass

Glass’ system, while not quite the same, relies on similar principles. In short, Glass wanted to add a larger sensor but didn’t just want to make it a bigger square. Instead, they made it rectangular, making the lens and sensor longer. Then, using an anamorphic lens, Glass’ system captures a larger, distorted image and corrects it to the right aspect ratio using the image processor.

Glass claims its prototype sensor is 11 times larger than the iPhone 13 sensor

To give an idea of how much of an improvement this can be, consider the iPhone 13 camera. Its sensor is about 7mm by 5mm, meaning the sensor has a total area of about 35 square millimetres. Glass’ prototype, however, uses a 24mm x 8mm sensor with an area of about 192 square millimetres. That makes the Glass prototype sensor five or six times larger than the iPhone 13 sensor.

But there’s more. As Glass explained to TechCrunch, you need to account for the full aspect ratio, which once processed, would be twice as tall at 24mm x 16mm. That’s about 11 times larger than an iPhone 13 sensor and comes in just shy of the APS-C standard in DSLRs. It’s also well above the Micro Four Thirds and 1-inch sensors common in mirrorless cameras.

Diagram comparing iPhone 13 and Glass sensor size | Image credit: TechCrunch

The main benefit here is a substantial increase in light captured by the camera. More light leads to better exposures and can improve camera performance in poor conditions, like night photography.

Larger sensors can also help capture more detail in images. Plus, the larger sensor and glass help create a natural bokeh effect without the need to simulate once using software, like the portrait modes available on most modern smartphones.

Improvements, but not without drawbacks

Comparison of iPhone 12 Max (left) and Glass prototype (right) | Image credit: Glass

Of course, as impressive as this all sounds, there are drawbacks to the Glass system. As TechCrunch explains, complexities stem from using a camera that is, optically, totally different from traditional cameras.

Anamorphic lenses also have different mechanisms for autofocus and doing so is complex. Moreover, there are more distortions that need to be corrected for compared to symmetrical lenses (although to be fair, symmetrical lenses also have distortions at smartphone size).

This is where machine learning and neural networks come in. Glass said it’s “straightforward” to train a model to correct for these issues to a point where most people wouldn’t notice them.

Still, for an early prototype, the Glass system is impressive. Unfortunately, don’t expect it to be on your next smartphone. The startup said it’s trying to convince manufacturers to ditch the old tech and adopt the anamorphic system.

Moreover, even if Glass struck an agreement now with a smartphone company, it’d be up to two years before the new camera tech would get to market.

Plus, considering that all we’ve got to go on so far is what Glass has said and shown, it’s worth taking all this with a grain of salt. I’m excited to see what comes of real-world testing if Glass’ system (or other anamorphic cameras) start showing up in phones. But, I won’t hold my breath waiting.

Header image credit: Glass

Source: Glass Via: TechCrunch

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Mobile Syrup

Samsung, Telus announce deployment of new mission critical network tech

Samsung and Telus announced the successful deployment of “Canada’s first next-generation Mission Critical Push-to-X (MCPTX) services.”

According to a press release from Samsung, the MCPTX deployment on Telus’ network will help equip Canada’s first responders with ” the information and data they need to more accurately assess emergency situations.” It should also help improve responsiveness and operational efficiency.

Samsung shared several examples of how MCPTX will enhance communication in public safety scenarios. For first responders, Samsung says MCPTX tech will help share knowledge and expertise from first responders in different locations or across different agencies. That can include things like communicating in real-time to quickly resolve a public emergency or quickly sharing information like video or maps to first responders.

Another example relates to cellular usage — MCPTX enables priority access for first responders, helpful during catastrophic events where cell usage tends to spike significantly.

Samsung also shared the idea of a connected ambulance that could allow paramedics to share critical information and connect with emergency room doctors to start treatment remotely.

Finally, Samsung suggested that MCPTX could interface with traffic control by disseminating emergency vehicle route maps to intersections, allowing for “green lights” all along the route.

Telus says its MCPTX service will be available with priority access to commercial users on Telus’ network. Moreover, the carrier is actively trialling the service with select customers and will offer wider commercial availability later in 2022.

Those interested can learn more about Samsung’s network solutions here and about Telus’ efforts to support first responders here.

Source: Samsung

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Mobile Syrup

Staples’ Friends + Family sale offers $25 off eligible tech purchases

Staples has kicked off a four-day ‘Friends + Family’ sale that offers $25 off $250+ tech products.

You can claim the discount with the coupon code 85843. As Lbabinz notes, this could be used on gaming consoles like or , especially if you were considering getting one for Christmas. Of course, this also applies to anything from computers, printers, smartphones and headphones.

This promotion runs from November 4th to 7th. Also available during this time is a 15 percent off coupon code (85847) on non-tech products.

You can learn more on the Friends + Family sale here.