Nintendo’s Year in Review is now available, showing the games you played, the games played at launch, and how long you’ve been playing specific titles.

The Year in Review also shows many days and hours you played of certain games. For instance, I played 56 hours of Pokémon Legends: Arceus and also 20 days worth of the title in January.

Afterwards, it tells your gaming trends; for myself, it says I played 50 percent role-playing titles, 27 percent action, and 23 percent adventure games.

Lastly, it thanks you for playing and recommends other titles you might like.

Source: Nintendo

Google postponed plans to start turning off its old extensions standard in January and hasn’t set up a new timeline for the plan.

Google previously planned to test turning off its Manifest V2 (MV2) extension standard in some versions of Chrome starting January 2023. The search giant is currently trying to switch to the new Manifest V3 (MV3), which aims to improve the performance and security of Chrome extensions. However, critics have taken issue with MV3 over changes to features used by ad-blocking extensions.

According to a Google Groups post from Chrome Extensions developer advocate Simeon Vincent, Google postponed removing MV2 from pre-release versions of Chrome, like Chrome Canary, Dev, and Beta, in January to give developers more time to update their extensions and prepare for the changes:

“We’re committed to providing developers solutions to migration challenges with new functionality, bug fixes, and adequate time for adoption. For this reason, we’re postponing any January experiments to turn off Manifest V2 in pre-release channels of Chrome and changes to the featured badge in the Chrome Webstore, and we’ll be evaluating all downstream milestones as well. Expect to hear more about the updated phase-out plan and schedule by March of 2023. Our guiding principle will be to give developers sufficient time to update and test their extensions after the launch of these new capabilities before turning off Manifest V2.”

The original plan was to test the removal of MV2 in pre-release Chrome, expand the tests to stable Chrome releases in June 2023, and then stop running MV2 extensions entirely in January 2024. Now those future plans, like stopping using MV2 entirely, are “under review.”

Others have written extensively about MV3’s potential impact on ad-blockers, but the short version is that MV3 swaps the Web Request API — commonly used by ad-blockers — for the ‘Declarative Net Request’ API. It gives ad-blockers less power in an effort to minimize security risks, but critics argue the changes restrict actions extensions can take to protect user privacy.

Worse, Google’s changes don’t just apply to Chrome — Chromium will be impacted as well. That means the MV3 changes will likely trickle down into other Chromium-based browsers, such as Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi. Firefox, however, plans to support MV3 and as well as the Web Request API.

Source: Google Groups Via: The Verge, 9to5Google

I never thought we’d see the day, but here it is: Apple reportedly plans to allow alternate app stores on iPhones and iPads.

The news comes from Bloomberg’s reliable Mark Gurman, who reports that Apple has a major overhaul in the works that aims to comply with new European Union (EU) requirements coming in 2024. This includes things like the ‘Digital Markets Act,’ which will take effect in the coming months but won’t require companies to comply until 2024. The act requires technology companies to allow the installation of third-party apps and allow users to easily change default settings.

Gurman cites people familiar with Apple efforts, writing that “software engineering and services employees are engaged in a major push to open up key elements of Apple’s platforms.” Changes include allowing people to download third-party software to iPhones and iPads without using the Apple App Store. That could potentially allow app developers to dodge Apple’s up to 30 percent cut of App Store payments.

However, the changes so far are designed to go live just in Europe, although the people familiar with the effort told Gurman the project could law the groundwork for similar changes in other regions should other countries pass similar laws. Apple aims for the changes to go live in iOS 17.

Moreover, the change is reportedly unpopular within Apple. That doesn’t come as a surprise given Apple’s various attacks on sideloading — the company also lobbied against the EU laws, arguing that it could allow unsafe apps to get onto people’s devices. Apple is reportedly considering mandating security requirements for software distributed outside the app store and requiring that Apple verify those apps — Gurman notes that could carry a fee.

However, that sounds like just another way for Apple to squeeze money out of developers even if they choose not to use the App Store. Various reports suggest Apple’s long-standing argument that the App Store promotes security doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

Other things Apple is working on include opening more of its private APIs to third-party apps, allowing third-party browsers to use engines other than WebKit (which Safari uses), opening more camera features to third-party apps, and even the near-field communications (NFC) chip. So far, only Apple Wallet and Pay can use NFC, a long-standing gripe with developers of financial apps. Apple may even open up the Find My network to accessory makers like Tile.

Gurman also reports there are some things where Apple hasn’t made any decisions. For one, the company hasn’t decided whether to comply with a section of the Digital Markets Act that would allow third-party payment systems within apps. Apple also hasn’t made decisions about opening up the features of iMessage despite the requirements to do so. Apple still doesn’t plan to support Google’s RCS — also not a surprise, given its views on it.

The EU threatened fines of up to 20 percent of a company’s annual global revenue for repeated violations of the law. Gurman notes that Apple generated nearly $400 billion USD (roughly $542.4 billion CAD) worldwide in 2022, putting the fine in the $80 billion USD (about $108.5 billion CAD) range. Moreover, this comes as Apple prepares to comply with another EU regulation by adding a USB-C port to the iPhone. Perhaps with both these changes on the horizon, we could see an EU-only iPhone from Apple.

Source: Bloomberg

Some Samsung devices are receiving the December security patch, according to the Rogers and Telus update schedules.

Strangely, the company’s current flagships aren’t getting the update yet — instead, it’s the Galaxy S21 series.

According to the update schedules, the S21, S21+ and S21 Ultra will receive the December security update now. Samsung Galaxy S22 series devices will need to wait until December 20th to get the update.

The security patch includes a number of fixes ranging from high to critical severity.

In the past, Samsung has been notoriously bad at releasing monthly updates on time. However, the company is slowly getting better with each new generation of devices. I don’t know if releasing the patch to 2021 model and not the 2022 model should be considered progress, however.

The Koodo update schedule reflects a similar timeline.

It’s not common knowledge, but nearly every component featured in Apple’s iPhone isn’t created by the company, with its powerful processors being one of the few notable exceptions.

In an uncharacteristic move, Apple CEO Tim Cook was recently upfront about the company’s long-standing partnership with Sony regarding camera sensors.

In a tweet sent during Cook’s recent tour of Sony’s Kumamoto, Japan facility, Apple’s CEO thanked Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida for showing him around the lab.

We’ve been partnering with Sony for over a decade to create the world’s leading camera sensors for iPhone. Thanks to Ken and everyone on the team for showing me around the cutting-edge facility in Kumamoto today. pic.twitter.com/462SEkUbhi

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) December 13, 2022

For years it’s been believed that Apple featured Sony sensors in its smartphones’ cameras. Several iFixit teardowns over the years have confirmed this, right down to the specific image sensor created by Sony. However, this is the first instance Apple has publically confirmed that it has used Sony’s sensors in its iPhone cameras for the past 10 years.

It’s likely that if Cook is touring Sony’s camera facility, the two tech giants’ partnership isn’t dissolving anytime soon. According to Nikkei Asia, Sony’s upcoming image sensor can capture more light by doubling each pixel’s saturation signal level while balancing overexposure and underexposure better.

Apple’s rumoured iPhone 15 Ultra is tipped to include two selfie cameras and a primary shooter with 10x optical zoom, a significant jump over the current 3x zoom.

Source: @tim_cook Via: The Verge

Coffee Briefings are timely deliveries of the latest ITWC headlines, interviews, and podcasts. Today’s Coffee Briefing is delivered by IT World Canada’s editorial team!

Missed last week’s Coffee Briefing? We’ve got you covered.

What’s new this week

Google for Startups Accelerator Canada applications now open

Source: Google

Applications are now open for the fourth Google for Startups Accelerator Canada, which launches in March 2023. The accelerator brings Google’s programs, products, people, and technology to Canadian startups that are leveraging machine learning and AI through their work. 

The accelerator provides mentorships and technical project support, as well as workshops focused on product design, customer acquisition, and leadership development for founders.

Google will select up to 12 Seed to Series A tech startups based in Canada. Participating companies will receive technical training and high-level strategic development opportunities with its machine learning, people, product, and growth labs.

Applications are open until Feb. 1, 2023 with the accelerator kicking off in March 2023. 

For more information and the application link, click here. 

SAP holiday shopping data reveals shoppers’ willingness to spend

Holiday shopping has begun, and SAP reports that SAP Commerce Cloud powered over US$8.3 billion in digital commerce gross merchandise value (GMV) for Cyber Week with their retail customers, seeing a 22.3 per cent increase in average order value (AOV) year over year (YOY)

For Black Friday, overall site traffic for SAP Commerce Cloud customers increased 23 per cent versus last year. And on Cyber Monday, overall site traffic increased 53 per cent.

In addition to site traffic, retail customers leveraging SAP Commerce Cloud saw Black Friday conversion rates of 3.4 times that of 2021.

Based on SAP’s data, shoppers are looking for the best deals they can find. Black Friday traffic for retailers running SAP Commerce Cloud that executed sales events was 33 per cent higher YOY, versus a 16 per cent increase for the total data set. On Cyber Monday, overall site traffic increased 53 per cent, 40 per cent more than the daily average. 

BMO and Extend partner for virtual card distribution 

Source: BMO

BMO and virtual card and spend management platform provider Extend are partnering to announce the addition of a set of payment functionality to BMO Corporate Cards. Through its existing relationship with Mastercard, BMO Commercial Bank clients across North America can now use Extend’s mobile and desktop app to create, send, and manage virtual cards for simplified payment and reconciliation processes.

BMO is the first organization to work with Extend in Canada and will make Extend solutions available to all corporate card clients across North America. 

Extend’s platform offers BMO clients the ability to control vendor payments, manage receipts and recurring expenses, as well as subscriptions. BMO clients can also set spending limits and create, modify, send, and cancel virtual cards in real-time.

“Our Corporate Card clients want to keep their spending secure and controlled, while reducing costs,” said Derek Vernon, head of product management and enterprise payments modernization, BMO Commercial Bank. “The Extend for BMO app solves this critical need with the power of virtual cards that retain all the benefits our clients already enjoy with their Corporate Card program while helping them make real financial progress.”

This agreement builds on the bank’s recently announced partnerships with FISPAN and Xero.

Two Montreal teams winners at the global IBM Call for Code competition

At an awards ceremony at the United Nations in New York last week, IBM honoured winners of its annual global Call for Code competition, which included Canadian teams that placed third and fourth.

Call for Code lets innovators around the globe help speed up sustainable development and fight climate change through technology solutions powered by open source software.

The finalists from Canada were two Montreal-based companies. The third place winner was Nearbuy, a shopping assistant designed by a team of Morgan Stanley developers that integrates with existing online shopping sites and automatically notifies users if similar items can be found locally. Nearbuy was awarded US$25,000. 

ESSPERA, a machine learning application from SIA Innovations that helps farmers choose the best seeds to plant for the next harvest, taking into account both published seed trial data and local weather forecasts, won fourth place and was awarded US$10,000. 

More to explore 

Google urges developers to build more secure software

Since the compromise of the SolarWinds Orion update mechanism two years ago this month, governments and the IT industry have made strides in trying to reduce the attack surface of applications.

Toronto Pwn2Own hacking contest awards over $980,000 to bug hunters

Security researchers picked up US$989,750 in prizes for demonstrating 63 unique zero day vulnerabilities in consumer and small office products during the four-day Toronto edition of the Pwn2Own hacking contest.

Rackspace outage crashes share price; Silent teleport steals data from financial institutions; Open source Cryptonite “accidentally” destroys data. This Week in Ransomware – Sunday, Dec 11, 2022

On Dec. 2, Rackspace experienced an outage for its Hosted Exchange environment. The company blamed a “security incident.” A status update issued by the company noted, “We proactively shut down the environment to avoid any further issues while we continue work to restore service.”

Ad-free search platform launches in Canada

Search engine Neeva launches today in Canada to provide users with a tracking-free and ad-free alternative to search platform Google.

Government of Canada to invest $30 million in AI in robots

The federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, recently announced an investment of $30 million in Sanctuary Cognitive Systems Corporation, a Vancouver company specializing in AI and robotics.

A happy holiday gift guide – part 1

Tis the season for worrying about what to buy for friends, colleagues, and loved ones – and what we would like to find under the tree for ourselves. So in honour of the season, we offer the first of our weekly gift guides that we hope will spark inspiration.

Happy holiday gift guide: Part Two

It’s that time of year again. The holiday season is approaching quickly and gift buying is probably taking over your mind. If you’re stumped on what to buy and need some inspiration, take a look at part 2 of our holiday gift guide!

Technicity West: Innovative economies are built on four key pillars

Creating an innovative economy can only happen if four key pillars are adopted that will allow municipal growth to happen in new ways, the city manager of Lethbridge, Alta. said this week.

Climate Neutral wins the top prize in WEtech Alliance’s ScaleUP Accelerator

Cleantech company Climate Neutral, which develops digital tools to accelerate climate action, has been awarded the C$20,000 top prize from WEtech Alliance’s ScaleUP Accelerator program.

Aeris to acquire IoT business from Ericsson

Ericsson has signed an agreement for the transfer of its IoT Accelerator and Connected Vehicle Cloud businesses to San Jose based-Aeris Communications, a provider of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.

Channel Bytes December 9, 2022 – Broadcom announces plans for VMware; CYREBRO appoints global channel sales VP; U.S. Pentagon blocks resellers; and more

Staying informed is a constant challenge. There’s so much to do, and so little time. But we have you covered. Grab a coffee and take five while you nibble on these tidbits.

Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Trending

Maryland is the most recent state to ban TikTok in government agencies, Amazon accused of stealing delivery driver tips, and the EU sets a deadline for device manufacturers to switch to USB-C for their data and charging ports.

Listen to the latest episode of Cyber Security Today

This episode reports on the results from the Toronto Pwn2Own contest, a possible way to hack air-gapped computers, a report on improving the software security supply chain and more.

Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Tendances (Hosted by Direction Informatique)

If you live in Quebec, or prefer to consume the latest technology news in French, our sister publication Direction Informatique has you covered. Follow them on Twitter as well.

The post Coffee Briefing December 13, 2022- Google for Startups Accelerator applications; SAP holiday shopping data; BMO and Extend partner; and more first appeared on IT World Canada.

Waterfront Toronto has signed an agreement with Dream Unlimited Corp. and Great Gulf Group to create the largest all-electric, zero-carbon master-planned community in Canada.

The companies, collectively known as Quayside Impact Limited Partnership, will develop the 12-acre site at Parliament and Queens Quay into a community known as Quayside. They will create more than 800 affordable housing units and allocate 3.5 acres to public space. This space will include a “green oasis” free of vehicles.

The news comes after Sidewalk Labs’s departure from developing the area in 2020. 

“This agreement is another step toward Quayside becoming the world-class, complete community that Toronto was promised,” George Zegarac, Waterfront Toronto’s CEO, said. “It codifies the vision for this neighbourhood, and all the hopes that we heard from the public and from our partners in government: Quayside will be a community that is dynamic, inclusive and resilient.”

Image credit: Waterfront Toronto 

Source: Waterfront Toronto

Despite Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s lofty claims surrounding the ‘Full Self Driving’ (FSD) capabilities of the company’s electric vehicles, the EVs haven’t entirely lived up to expectations.

Now, Tesla’s lawyers argue that even though the company’s FSD technology hasn’t lived up to expectations, the pricey feature shouldn’t be considered “fraud.”

“Mere failure to realize a long-term, aspirational goal is not fraud,” Tesla’s lawyers wrote in a November 28th court filing, requesting that a recent class-action lawsuit be dismissed.

“Plaintiffs knew at the time of purchase that their cars were not completely autonomous. And they knew that the timeline towards more complete autonomy was contingent upon numerous factors, including software development and regulatory approval. Yet now they sue Tesla, complaining that their cars are not completely autonomous,” the document continues.

The lawsuit cites several instances where Musk tweeted deadlines for FSD’s final release and Tesla advertisements that paint the feature as more capable than it actually is. For example, back in 2016, Musk said that a Tesla vehicle would be able to drive itself across the United States “by next year,” though that obviously didn’t happen.

The lawsuit, which was filed by California-based Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, also cites instances involving FSD and crashes.

Tesla’s Full Self Driving recently expanded to be available to anyone in North America who “requests it from the car screen” as long as they’ve paid for the pricey $19,500 add-on to the vehicle.

Regardless of where you fall on the Full Self Driving argument, it’s clear that even though it has made tremendous strides since 2015, the feature isn’t quite where Tesla said it would be at this point in its development process. Further, similar FSD systems offered by other manufacturers, including Hyundai, Honda, Mercedes-Benz and more, are quickly catching up to the EV maker or have even surpassed it in some ways.

Via: Teslarati, CNN

Nova Scotia-based telecom company Eastlink has expanded its mobile network to Miramichi, New Brunswick. 

The move is part of a $26 million mobile expansion in the province to improve coverage and provide residents with more service options.

Eastlink’s network features rollover data, 5G-ready service, and $0 down device options.

“Our teams have been working hard for the better part of the year getting our network sites built and our store ready to reflect the interactive, personalized experience we want our customers to have when they walk through the door,”  Jeff Gillham, the company’s CEO, said.

Source: Eastlink

Canadian deal messiah Lbabinz has posted again sharing that Walmart Canada has over 7,000 PlayStation 5 bundles in stock.

The main bundle comes with God of War Ragnarök, the PS5 console with a disc drive and a single controller. This option retails for $729.96.

If you don’t want the disk drive, the PS5 digital bundle includes the new Ragnarök, a controller and the version of the console without a disc drive. This option sells for $599.96.

Customers are limited to one PS5 per person, and the bundle is sold and shipped by Walmart, not a third-party seller.

~7,500 consoles in stock https://t.co/s1yeZL9hRd pic.twitter.com/q7vVoAPQkf

— Lbabinz 🇨🇦 (@Lbabinz) December 13, 2022

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Source: Walmart Canada Via: @Lbabinz