Tesla vehicles are popular in Norway, Apple will increase its battery replacement fee, and social media giants may face more government regulations this year.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Tuesday, January 3rd, and I am your host, Samira Balsara.
Tesla sold more cars in Norway than any other brand for a second consecutive year, clinching a 12.2 per cent share of the overall market ahead of Volkswagen with 11.6 per cent. According to Reuters, four out of five new cars sold in Norway in 2022 were battery powered, led by Tesla. Norway has become the world’s highest proportion of electric vehicles, now making it an optimal space for automakers launching models. And according to the Norwegian Road Federation, the share of battery electric vehicles increased to 79.3 per cent of all new cars in 2022 from 65 per cent.
The price to replace batteries in Apple products will increase in March. According to reports from 9to5Mac, the company made the announcement on the devices’ repair pages under its price estimators. The price hike varies depending on the device. For iPhones, Apple’s site says “the out-of-warranty battery service fee will be increased by $20 for all iPhone models prior to iPhone 14.” For MacBook Air models the price will increase by $30. iPads will also see a price increase of about $20.
Social media companies may face more government regulation in 2023. Wisconsin Representative Mike Gallagher and Senator Amy Klobuchar have both confirmed that rules for social media giants will continue into the new year. On January 1, Gallagher compared TikTok to “digital fentanyl” on NBC’s “Meet the Press” while adding that he views the app as dangerous, addictive and destructive. Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who was also on the segment said she believes the U.S. is far behind when it comes to social media regulation. Haugen added that social media platforms operate using similar algorithms, and that regulators should emphasize the need for more transparency about how these apps work.
Chinese companies are paying huge sums of money for virtual employees. Tech company Baidu said the number of virtual people projects it’s worked on for clients has doubled since 2021, with prices ranging from $2,800 to $14,300 per year. According to a CNBC report, these virtual people are a combination of animation, sound tech and machine learning that create digitized human beings who can sing and interact on a livestream. In August, Beijing city announced a plan to build up the municipal virtual people industry into one valued at more than 50 billion yuan by 2025. In fact, a survey published by Kantar revealed that at least 36 per cent of consumers had watched a virtual influencer or digital celebrity perform in the last year and in 2023, 45 per cent of advertisers said they might sponsor a virtual influencer’s performance or invite a virtual person to join a brand’s event.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Samira Balsara.
As a yearly tradition at MobileSyrup, every team member writes a list of their favourite things from the past year. It’s a fun, creative exercise, but it also offers our readers a chance to get to know the team behind the never-ending tech blog posts a little more.
I found it particularly difficult to come up with five things I actually liked from 2022 — not because there wasn’t anything I enjoyed from the year, but because everything post-2019 has blended together in my brain. Still, I enjoyed several things in 2022, though some are repeats from my list last year to some extent.
Just like 2021, by far, my favourite thing of the year is Halo Infinite. The game has undeniably encountered difficulties over the past 12 months, with 343 industries struggling to consistently bring new maps, features and fixes to the title. But underneath its several shortcomings is core gameplay that’s a clear throwback to the Halo 2/Halo 3 glory days of the series’ multiplayer.
This is why after roughly 23 days of in-game time over the past year in Ranked multiplayer (no, I’m not exaggerating), I still come back for more nearly every day. It’s been years since I’ve stuck with a game the way I’ve continued to play Halo Infinite, learning its ins and outs, studying update breakdowns and following the title’s esports scene closely. I even managed to hit Onyx, the game’s highest multiplayer rank, before falling back down to mid-Diamond a few weeks later.
I’m looking forward to what 2023 looks like for Halo Infinite, especially with Forge now available and Season 3 looming on the horizon.
Ioniq 5
This year I entered the wild world of electric vehicles (EVs). With my rapidly ageing 2014 Ford Fiesta on its last legs, I managed to get my hands on Hyundai’s Ioniq 5. So far, I really like the Ioniq 5, especially its futuristic design, though I’m not particularly fond of the ‘Shooting Star Grey’ matte paint that requires hand washing (it looks cool, but it’s also a ton of work).
The rumours surrounding EVs losing a significant amount of range in cold weather are very accurate in my experience, given the car drops about 30 percent of its range in negative-degree weather. Thankfully, the relatively short distances I drive the car and the fact that I installed a Level 2 charger at home make this not an issue for me, but I can see it being a problem for some. My other key issue is the fact that the car doesn’t feature a back wiper, which is a must in Canada’s snowy climate.
Everything else about the Ioniq 5 is stellar, including its awesome Level 2 highway assist driving that maintains speed and the distance between you and the vehicle in front of you while keeping you between the lines (I don’t think I can ever go back), ample trunk space and that EV boost of acceleration and torque you feel as soon as you push the pedal down.
I plan to put together a detailed story (and video) about my experience with the car on MobileSyrup so far at some point in the future.
Blink-182 reunion
Few things are certain in life, but one fact that’s become evident over the past decade or so is Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge will leave the band, only to rejoin again a few years later. As my favourite band, I can’t help but be excited by this latest original reunion lineup, despite feeling sorry for Matt Skiba, DeLonge’s fill-in on California and Nine, who has unceremoniously been kicked to the curb. Everything from my taste in music and clothes to my sense of humour can sadly be traced back to discovering the band in middle school.
The band’s first new single, “Edging,” isn’t amazing, but it’s catchy and a solid sign of what’s hopefully to come when the full album drops later this year. I’m also looking forward to seeing the band live in Toronto in May (I better be given how much the tickets cost).
Hopefully, Blink-182 getting back together is a sign the universe has returned to a good timeline once again.
1883
Why are Yellowstone‘s prequels so much better than the once great, but rapidly becoming awful main TV show? I don’t know the answer to this question, but 1883 remains one of my favourite TV shows that I’ve watched in the last several years.
The western follows the Dutton family as they travel west to establish the ranch that’s featured in the main TV series. Without giving too much away, no character is safe during the perilous journey, and the mini-series takes several surprising twists I didn’t expect over its solid 10-episode run. Given how Yellowstone‘s prequels have been a one-and-done exercise so far, creator Taylor Sheridan has far more creative freedom regarding the story they weave.
I’m not sure if 1923, the Harrison Ford-led prequel-sequel, will live up to its predecessor, but if the first few episodes I’ve watched are an accurate indication, it’s poised to.
iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island
I probably wrote these exact words last year, but this wouldn’t be my list without including an iPhone. While this year’s iPhone 14 Pro isn’t the leap forward I’d hoped for and is very similar to the iPhone 13 Pro, I’m a big fan of the ‘Dynamic Island.’ It’s one of the few truly unique additions to a smartphone in the past several years, despite not working with every app yet. The Dynamic Island holds a tremendous amount of potential, and I’m excited to see where Apple takes it with the iPhone 15 Pro.
Speaking of the iPhone 15 Pro, this year’s smartphone is expected to be the most significant leap forward since the iPhone X, including a subtle redesign, the move to USB-C, solid-state buttons and a periscope lens.
It’s rare that a smart appliance actually feels smart, and that will likely still be the case for Samsung’s upcoming Bespoke AI Oven.
For example, my LG ThinQ dishwasher is smart but I can’t turn it on remotely. All its internet connectivity is good for is downloading custom washing cycles and recommending me to buy some specific rinse agent through incessant notifications.
That hasn’t stopped appliance makers from including Wi-Fi in appliances, however. This is where Samsung’s pre-CES reveal of the Bespoke AI Oven comes in. According to Samsung, the AI Oven is capable of automatically recognizing what you’ve asked it to cook and set the appropriate temperature, time and mode. It even includes “burn detection” in the EU, according to the company’s press release.
This AI recognition is powered by an internal camera that recognizes “80 different dishes and ingredients.” There’s also a 7-inch touchscreen (because every stove needs a massive touchscreen) that allows users to adjust settings and features manually. It’s worth noting that features seem to be region-specific given the European version of the Bespoke AI Oven can recognize 106 dishes, 26 more than its U.S. counterpart.
As you may have guessed, the AI oven’s camera can also be used to livestream the inside of your oven to social media as well as check on your cooking without opening the door. As expected, Samsung says that this feature is “great for content creators and avid chefs who want to share their dishes.”
Finally, an oven for Twitch streamers — just what the world needed.
Samsung says it plans to launch the Bespoke AI Oven in the U.S. and the EU in Q3 2023. It’s unclear how much the oven will cost or it if will release in Canada. In other CES 2022 Samsung news, the company also recently revealed a 57-inch curved monitor.
Samsung has revealed a new lineup of monitors for CES 2023, including one that’s remarkably wide.
That would be the 57-inch Odyssey Neo G9, a curved, dual UHD mini-LED model with a resolution of 7,860 x 2,160 pixels, 32:9 aspect ratio, HDR and a 240Hz refresh rate. Additionally, Samsung says this is the first gaming monitor with DisplayPort 2.1 connectivity.
Samsung is also set to release the ViewFinity S9, a 27-inch, colour-accurate 5K monitor with a 5,120 x 2,880 display. The S9 will support HDMI, Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, DisplayPort and more. All in all, it’s poised to be a competitor to Apple’s Studio Display and LG’s more expensive OLED monitors.
Other monitors Samsung is showing off at CES 2023 include the Odyssey Neo G7, a 43-inch, 144Hz Quantum Dot, DisplayHDR 600 model, and the Odyssey G95SC, which it says is the first OLED gaming monitor with a 32:9 aspect ratio. It’s also got a 5,120 x 1,440 resolution, 240Hz refresh rate and a Dual Quad-HD display.
As is normally the case with CES announcements, pricing for these monitors has yet to be revealed and will instead come later in the year.
CES 2023 officially runs from January 5th to 8th in Las Vegas. For more on the tech-focused event, stay tuned to MobileSyrup.
Despite Tesla’s stock issues tied to investor concern over Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and his repeated stock selloffs, the EV maker has experienced a solid quarter regarding vehicle deliveries and manufacturing.
In a release on its website, the Musk-owned company revealed that it delivered 405,000 vehicles in Q4 2022. In comparison, the EV maker delivered 308,600 cars during the same time period in 2021. However, despite setting a record, this number is still under Wall Street estimates of 431,117, according to Refinitiv data (via Reuters).
Below is a breakdown of worldwide Tesla deliveries:
Model 3/Model Y: 388,131
Model S/Model X: 17,147
In total, Tesla produced 439,701 vehicles in the fourth quarter, with 308,600 making their way to consumers. Overall, Tesla’s overall production and delivery for 2021 sit at 1,369,611 and 1,313,851, respectively.
Even though Tesla is setting manufacturing records, it doesn’t appear that the EV maker has addressed its vehicles’ quality issues. Critics have slammed Tesla, particularly the Model 3, for years regarding gaps in exterior panels, paint job issues and more.
In other Tesla-related news, it remains unclear when Tesla’s Cybertruck will enter mass production, though the latest rumours point to late 2023.
Reflecting back on the past year, I got a lot done, from moving to the Greater Toronto Area and returning to a hybrid work environment from solely working from home.
Favourite series
Apple TV Original Severance starts off describing a procedure that I honestly wouldn’t mind going through.
The psychological thriller series follows a group of employees that voluntarily go through ‘Severance,’ a procedure that bifurcates their ‘innie’ and ‘outie’ memories. Essentially, these employees don’t recall what they do at work when they’re out of the workplace, and similarly, they don’t recall details about their personal lives when at work.
Sounds great, right? You sit at home and collect paycheques without carrying any of the work stress.
It turns out things aren’t that simple, though, and the company these employees work for has something more sinister going on.
While not all is revealed, employees go through Severance for different reasons. The protagonist, Mark, undergoes the procedure soon after his wife dies to avoid grief for eight hours a day.
Created by Dan Erickson and co-directed by Ben Stiller, Severance stars Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, Britt Lower, John Turturro, Tramell Tillman, Patricia Arquette and Christopher Walken. The show starts off slow, with more of a story-building angle and small details that all make sense toward the season finale. Halfway through the series is when things start getting tense.
Employees start questioning the company’s shady ways after a former ‘severed’ employee ‘reintegrates’ with the outside world, and they start debating whether they need the work or the work needs them.
The only bad thing about the show is that it ends on a massive cliffhanger, leaving you begging for more. Severance‘s Season 2 is in production, but it doesn’t have a release date yet.
Favourite activity
Earlier this month, I was in India and preparing to fly back to Toronto on the 12th of December. Before leaving, I decided to visit Mcleodganj and Dharamshala in the foothills of the great Himalayas in the Himachal Pradesh state of India. The region, which is rich in Tibetan culture, is a spiritual getaway for Buddhists, as it is the home of the 14th Dalai Lama, who came to the area in 1960 after his exile from Tibet.
People visit Mcleodganj and Dharamshala for its delicious Tibetan cuisine, welcoming hospitality, and, for me, to be in nature and experience the vastness and the sheer magnitude of the Himalayas that never fail to put me in my place and crush my ego. Note: this was my fourth visit to Mcleodganj and Dharamshala.
After spending a day just fooling around Mcleodganj and stuffing my mouth with as much delicious food as I could, I was put to do some hard work the following day.
Triund is a hilltop that is a 9km hike from Mcleodganj, at an elevation of 2,842 m above sea level. I started hiking up to Triund at 9am and reached the hilltop around 1pm, all while being accompanied by a stray dog, as seen in the photo below:
The hilltop gives a clear view of the vast snow-capped Dhauladhar range towards the east, and Mcleodganj down below towards the west. I enjoyed a hot cup of tea while basking under direct sunlight that calmed me down, while the occasional cool breeze, alongside the natural echo of the mountains, kept me alert.
Hiking up and down the same day is roughly 18km or 28,000 steps.
Favourite game
My favourite game for 2022 has been Valorant. I’ve played roughly 671 competitive hours of the game, while Deathmatch, where the stakes aren’t so high, saw 115 hours of gameplay.
I started playing the game in 2021, though most of the hours put in came in 2022. I peaked at the ascendant rank earlier this year, but have currently fallen back to Diamond 2 due to a lack of playtime.
For those unaware, Valorant is a 5v5 team-based tactical first-person shooter, similar to CS:GO, with attackers, who are tasked with planting a bomb or killing all the opps, and defenders, who prevent the bomb from being planted.
The game is extremely unpredictable, and that’s what makes it worth playing. Communication between teammates is key to outplaying your opponents, while new maps, weapon skins, kill/headshot sounds, and agents with varying abilities keep the game exciting.
Experiencing an improvement in my aim, game sense, movement, awareness, and mental is what keeps me going.
The only part of the game I don’t like is the abundance of smurfs (those who create a new account to play against low-ranked players) in my competitive games that absolutely destroy my team, or vice versa, when I’m matched with players from a lower rank. Additionally, winning games is dependent on teamwork and communication, which means if you get one toxic teammate, or someone who leaves the game after a few rounds, the game is as good as lost.
Favourite gadget
I’ve primarily been a Windows user, using laptops and PCs running Windows XP or Windows 7 back in the day, to Windows 11 now.
In 2022, I dabbled with macOS and using a MacBook Pro, and I can say that the convenience of using a MacBook while being an iPhone user is something I was missing out on. I am using a 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro with a quad-core Intel i5 processor and 16GB of RAM, the one with the Touch Bar.
So far, I’m appreciative of how well-connected the MacBook is with the iPhone. For someone like me, who has to shoot and edit photos for stories regularly, being able to AirDrop photos between my Mac and iPhone without cables or slow software is a blessing. Similarly, automatic photo syncing through the Photos app is convenient when I have to transfer multiple photos from my phone to my Mac.
iMessage and FaceTime support means I don’t need to grab my iPhone until absolutely necessary, and the laptop’s light weight, quick boot-up time and efficiency while using Creative Cloud applications make it a portable and versatile choice.
The laptop hasn’t crashed or frozen once since I started using it earlier this year, all while using memory-hungry software.
The only drawback I’ve found is that the laptop runs for only roughly 4-5 hours per charge, while all other Windows laptops I’ve used in the past have had a more reliable run time.
Favourite story written for MobileSyrup
A two-part story about cheap tech products written earlier this year was my favourite article to write for MobileSyrup.
While scouring a local Dollarama , my attention went toward the store’s variety of tech products, and that quickly turned into a story idea.
I bought 12 tech products from Dollarama, ranging from a wireless Bluetooth speaker ($4.75) with a suction cup, a wireless charging pad ($4) and gaming headphones ($4) to smartphone charging cables ($2 – $5), earbuds ($4.50) and hexagon lights ($4.50).
As expected, a bunch of Dollarama tech products weren’t up to the mark. A pair of headphones and earbuds turned out to be duds. On the other hand, testing out products that worked was a fun experience.
For example, ‘Tech1’s wireless Bluetooth speaker’ is a waterproof speaker with a suction cup that lets it attach to almost any surface, and the speaker holds on well. I still have the speaker, and it has found its home on the wall next to my shower.
Similarly, a $4 charging pad charges all Qi-enabled devices with 5W speeds. The pad charges my iPhone 12 Pro in roughly four hours, and is powerful enough to charge the phone without me having to remove its silicone case. The pad still lies at my work desk.
On the other hand, while the store offers essential items at affordable prices, that doesn’t mean all of its products are sure to feel and function great, and I found that most people would be better off spending a tad bit more on a slightly more reliable gadget from Amazon.
Follow the links to read more: “Are there hidden gems in Dollarama’s tech section?” — Part 1 and Part 2.
Apple will begin charging more for out-of-warranty battery replacements on iPhone, iPad and MacBook in Canada in March.
In a message on its support page, the company confirms that this service will cost $30 more for all iPhone models prior to iPhone 14. Currently, battery replacements start at an estimated $65 for the iPhone SE and go up to an estimated $89 for more recent models, including the iPhone 13.
For MacBooks, the battery service fee will increase by $50 for all Air models and $80 for all MacBook and MacBook Pro models. The current replacement fee is an estimated $169 for the MacBook Air and $259 for MacBook and MacBook Pro models.
Finally, the battery service fee is rising by $36 for the following iPad models: iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th-gen and prior), iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd gen and prior), iPad Pro 10.5-inch, iPad Pro 9.7-inch, iPad mini (6th-gen and prior), and iPad Air (5th-gen and prior). The current cost is an estimated $129 for these models.
The price increases for all of these devices will take effect on March 1st, 2022.
It should be noted that AppleCare+, Apple’s premium warranty program, will still cover battery replacement at no additional cost if your device’s battery holds less than 80 percent of its original capacity.
The battery replacement fee increase comes just a few months after the costs of Apple services TV+ and Music, as well as the ‘One’ bundles, went up in Canada.
Apple officially retired the popular animation-rich weather app on January 1st. The tech giant first acquired Dark Sky over two years ago. The app was removed from the App Store back in September, but now it no longer functions for current users that already have it on their device.
While Dark Sky is gone, several of the app’s key features live on in Apple’s official iOS Weather App, including hyperlocal forecasts that offer specific weather information like next-hour precipitation, 10-day forecasts and high-resolution radar maps.
Dark Sky’s Apple Weather app features require your iPhone, iPad or Mac to be running iOS 16, iPadOS 16 or macOS Ventura. Apple also published a guide about how to transition from Dark Sky to its own weather app.
Welcome to Cyber Security Today. It’s Monday, January 2nd, 2023. I’m Howard Solomon, contributing reporter on cybersecurity for ITWorldCanada.com.
Happy New Year to all of you.
My tradition since the podcast began is to start the first episode of the year with New Year’s Resolutions for IT and security leaders. Because you should resolve to do things more efficiently, more methodically and more strategically than last year. You need a cybersecurity plan.
I’m speaking to those of you in small and medium-sized businesses with fewer financial and human resources than large organizations.
You may not know where to start. So here’s some advice: Start at the end. Assume there’s been a breach of your security controls five minutes from now. Are you prepared?
Why start there? Because the beginning steps — which I’ll get to shortly — will take time. And time is what you don’t have if there’s a cyber incident. You need an incident response team, and an incident response plan.
First, the incident response plan has to be written, with several copies stored in a safe and accessible place for the incident response team. Why not on computer? Because the computer with the plan might be hacked, or encrypted.
Second, management and the IT team have to define when the incident response team should be summoned. It doesn’t have to be every incident. Many can be handled by IT alone.
Third, executives need to decide who should be on the incident response team. Membership is your choice. Obviously some or all of the IT security team. But also include someone from internal or external legal (because they will give the team legal advice) communications (because they will have the responsibility of communicating with employees, the media and clients) and perhaps someone from HR. It may also include experts from your vendors or an outside incident response specialist. The IT leader may be responsible for IT response, while an event investigator will gather data for forensic analysis. A team leader should also be appointed, and not necessarily the CEO.
Team members need to be on-call 27/7. When they can’t be — for a family reason, they’re on training or they are on vacation — there have to be designated alternates. Everyone on the team has to have several ways of being contacted in an emergency: Phone, email or text. The contact information has to be kept up to date.
Remember, often cyber attacks start with email being compromised. So this initial message to the incident response team meeting has to be carefully worded. For example, an email and text message might say, “There’s a meeting of the emergency team at the designated physical space,” or “at the designated virtual space.”
And because email might have been compromised it’s a good idea to have an emergency email account set up that is only used for incidents. Ideally, it will be provided by a separate internet provider. At the very least it will have a different name than the organization’s public email address.
Next, the plan should identify a designated place to meet. The easiest is the company board room, but any meeting room will do. Because of COVID or other reasons the team may have to meet virtually. If so, that has to be arranged in advance and security measures like password and access control must be arranged in advance. For further messaging with the team that special email account will have to be used.
Meanwhile, the IT team has to prepare for the worst. They do that by having a “Go Bag” with at least one laptop devoted strictly to dealing with resurrecting the IT infrastructure remotely. It will include all the tools IT needs. And to cover all contingencies, the Go Bag should to have a cellphone from a different provider than the one the organization normally uses.
Optimistically, doing these first steps might take two days.
This isn’t everything for the incident response plan. Management has to set out the responsibilities of team members. The IT department should start drafting ‘what-if’ scenarios — also called playbooks — so they are prepared for likely attacks. But at least the groundwork for the response team will be set.
As for the rest of the cybersecurity plan, it begins with making an inventory of all of the hardware and software under the organization’s control, as well as where all the servers with sensitive data reside. From there a patch management priority strategy needs to be worked out. There have to be policies for IT — and possibly business units — to follow on the secure configuration of hardware and software, for user identification, authorization and data access control, for employee training and for data backup and recovery.
I’ve only touched on what you should be doing to create a cybersecurity plan. The internet is full of free resources. Just type “create a cybersecurity plan” or “create an incident response plan.”
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has this guide for protecting personal data for businesses that come under the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
Finally, heads of private and public sector organizations should remember two things: Cybersecurity is risk management. IT departments don’t do that. That’s your job. Second, you have to lead. If the organization decides on a policy, you have to be seen to be following it. No exceptions.
That’s it for now. Follow Cyber Security Today on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or add us to your Flash Briefing on your smart speaker.
With 2022 coming to a close, it’s time to look back at the wacky news from the past year. 2022 was not 2021 or 2020, but a lot of weird stuff still went down.
Here are some of MobileSyrup’s top ‘WTF-worthy’ stories that shocked Canadians, and in some instances, the world:
‘Will Smith Slap’ NFT collection
Within 24 hours of the 2022 Academy Awards, where actor Will Smith walked up on stage and slapped comedian and actor Chris Rock, OpenSea, the most established NFT marketplace, became home to an NFT collection featuring a total of 1,999 ‘JPEGs’ of the incident with different meme text written on each one.
Yup. Will Smith’s slap has become an #NFT that 719 people have already bought on OpenSea. Each of those NFTs has been selling for an average of 0.0101 ETH or roughly $42 (US$34). pic.twitter.com/wYD3HEjaNF
Within the first 24 hours, 721 people had already purchased said NFTs of Smith smacking Rock, with the cheapest NFT listed for 0.003 ETH ($12.89 CAD), and the most expensive listed for 69 ETH ($296,452.79) at the time.
Back then, it wasn’t certain whether the Academy Awards incident was staged or not, and hence, each NFT had either “Team Fake” or “Team Real” written on it, and users could purchase an NFT based on their belief of the authenticity of the event.
Pokémon Scarlet’s and Violet’s rampant game glitches are relatively recent. The title, which was released in mid-November, quickly became a talking point. Not because of the long-awaited title’s release, its gameplay concepts, Pokémon designs or the storyline. Instead, the controversy is due to the game featuring countless bugs, visual glitches and crashes.
For a franchise as big as Pokémon, the sheer number and variety of bugs and glitches found in Scarlet and Violet are… astounding. “I experienced a few game crashes and visual hiccups like Pokémon falling off cliffs to their deaths, wild Pokémon walking through my battles, weird evolution glitches that create double Pokémon, ridiculous frame rate slowdowns, weird camera angles, Pokémon getting stuck in walls or the ground, and wall and ground clippings that are especially noticeable when catching Pokémon,” wrote MobileSyrup senior reporter Dean Daley in his review of the game.
This paints a bad look for the franchise. It’s evident that Scarlet and Violet needed a few more months of polish, especially given it’s a AAA-level title in one of the biggest media franchises ever.
Check some of the funniest Pokémon Scarlet and Violet glitches here.
Elon Musk acquires Twitter
Elon Musk acquiring Twitter likely caught you by surprise.
Initially, it was made public that Musk had acquired a 9.2 percent stake in the social media company, worth $2.89 billion USD (roughly $3.6 billion CAD). Back then, Musk was reportedly joining the Twitter board, but that never materialized as he offered to acquire the platform in a deal valued at $44 billion USD ($56 billion CAD at the time.)
On a side note, it was revealed that the Royal Bank of Canada and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce aided in the purchase. Musk reportedly borrowed about $25 billion in loans from 12 banks, out of which RBC pledged $750 million USD (roughly $955 million CAD) and CIBC put up $400 million USD (roughly $500 million CAD), totalling about $1.15 billion USD ($1.46 billion CAD) of the Canadian Bank loans.
Subsequently, due to a concern about Twitter’s bot user count, Musk said that his deal to buy Twitter couldn’t proceed until the company proved that fake and spam accounts make up less than five percent of the platform’s users.
20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher.
My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate.
Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%.
As time passed on, Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk to force him to make good on his deal to buy Twitter. In the suit, the company’s lawyers said Musk wanted to walk away from the deal because it “no longer serves his personal interests.” Judge Kathaleen McCormick from the Delaware Court of Chancery announced that Musk’s Twitter deal will go to court on October 17th.
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” wrote Musk.
Musk completed the acquisition in late October, and the rest is history. You can read the whole chaotic saga of the deal’s aftermath here.
Carrier locks store doors, ask customers for ID to enter
In early September, Rogers started keeping the doors at some of its physical stores locked, and the only way inside was by showing your government-issued ID.
It was in an effort to reduce robberies and fraud.
“The safety of our team members and customers is of the utmost importance to us. Several measures have been put in place over the last few years to improve safety in the stores, including robust training, upgraded cameras, and enhanced door screening policy,” Rogers spokesperson Chloe Luciani-Girouard told CBC Toronto.
MobileSyrup reporter Brad Bennett went into carrier stores to experience what it feels like to shop when carriers lock their doors. According to him, the new policy doesn’t result in a great buying experience.
“While a locked door doesn’t seem like much of a hassle, it makes the shopping experience slightly more involved and doesn’t leave much room for browsing. For example, in the flagship Rogers store at Yonge-Dundas Square, the policy results in only Rogers employees opening the door. So no matter how much eye contact you make with the security guard standing by the door, they won’t let you in. Once you’re in, a sales rep will immediately help you if one is free, which is nice, but if they’re all busy, you’ll be asked to sit and wait,” wrote Bennett.
Read more about Bennett’s experience shopping in closed carrier stores in Toronto here.
Rogers’ July outage
The morning of July 8th was a dreaded one. Rogers’ internet and mobile services went down for customers in Ontario and other provinces.
Other carriers and services owned by Rogers, including Fido, and internet service providers that use Rogers’ network, like TekSavvy and Oxio, experienced network issues throughout the day and into the weekend. The outage also impacted some travel and financial services, including Interac, the Confederation Bridge’s ability to process debit payments, the CRTC’s phone lines, Canadian Blood Services, Service Canada, ArriveCan and more. Users of the network were also unable to dial 911.
We know how important it is for our customers to stay connected. We are aware of issues currently affecting our networks and our teams are fully engaged to resolve the issue as soon as possible. We will continue to keep you updated as we have more information to share.
It was later revealed that the outage impacted more than 13 million wireline and wireless customers. 2.9 million customers were wireline (consumers, businesses, etc.), and 10.2 million were wireless customers (postpaid, prepaid, wholesale, etc.). It was also revealed that Rogers Internet Gateway, Core Gateway and Distribution Routers could not communicate between themselves or the company’s cellular, enterprise, and cable networks, which caused the outage.
“With the Core Gateways and Routers impacted, the wireless and wireline networks went offline and were unable to deliver traffic to and from residential and business customers,” Rogers said.
While Rogers was trying to make up for its service going down, scammers were having a field day. Several Canadians received phishing messages from scammers posing as Rogers, seemingly offering “compensation” for the outage.
Even the CRTC had to chime in, issuing a warning about an “ongoing scam” regarding the Rogers outage. The commission noted in a tweet that people should avoid clicking links in messages claiming to be from Rogers about reimbursement for the July 8th outage.
Now getting Rogers service outage text message phishing attempts, so that’s great. pic.twitter.com/FqATmgqKFL