Administrator – Cheerstospinning

Tesla launches Cybertruck in Canada, starting at nearly $140,000

Administrator — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 10:18:34 +0000

Tesla has launched its Cybertruck in Canada.

As spotted by Tesla North, the electric vehicle company began sending emails on August 8th to Canadian customers who had placed reservations for the Cybertruck. The base Dual Motor all-wheel drive (AWD) model starts at $137,990 CAD, while the Tri Motor (“Cyberbeast”) AWD configuration starts at $165,990. Deliveries will start this October.

It should be noted that rear-wheel drive Cybertrucks, which are set to cost less than these higher-end Cybertruck models, aren’t coming until next year. Therefore, your only options for now are the pricier Dual or Tri Motor trucks.

Also important to consider is that the Cybertruck is subject to Canada’s Federal Luxury Tax on certain vehicles that cost more than $100,000, as spotted by some X (Twitter) users:

In Canada, the Cybertruck (AWD) is subject to the Federal Luxury Tax which amounts to $8,171

According to the Canadian Goverment website, only vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 3,856 kg or less fall within the criteria of being taxed.

The Cybertruck has a gross vehicle… pic.twitter.com/qnZd8PEKgm

— Nic Cruz Patane (@niccruzpatane) August 9, 2024

In other words, that works out to around $8,200 and $13,800 extra on the Dual and Tri Motor models, respectively.

More information on the Cybertruck can be found here.

In related news, the U.S. is investigating what’s believed to be the first fatality with a Cybertruck.

Image credit: Tesla

Via: Tesla North

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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga sets Crave streaming date in Canada

Administrator — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 10:18:09 +0000

Bell has confirmed that Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will begin streaming on Crave on August 16th.

This is just under three months after the post-apocalyptic action film hit theatres on May 24th. Notably, August 16th is the same date the film will begin streaming on Max in the U.S.

While the latest Mad Max movie bombed at the box office, it did receive significant praise for George Miller’s direction, the action sequences and Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth’s performances.

Set 15 to 20 years before the events of 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa follows the titular young woman as she seeks revenge against the deranged warlord Dementus (Hemsworth).

Find out where to stream the other four Mad Max movies in Canada here.

Image credit: Warner Bros.

Distributed also on: Bell

Samsung resumes shipping Galaxy Buds 3 Pro after quality issues

Administrator — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 10:16:28 +0000

Samsung has resumed shipping its Galaxy Buds 3 Pro earbuds after halting sales to address various quality issues.

The company paused sales on the Buds 3 Pro over several issues, including problems with the ear tips being easy to damage during the removal process. That was probably the most widely discussed problem, but other issues emerged as well, including uneven seams and surfaces, issues with the LED, the buds sitting at different heights in the case and more.

Android Authority spotted several posts on Reddit from customers who received Galaxy Buds 3 Pro units on August 8th and 9th. Some of the customers had pre-ordered the buds but didn’t receive their initial order because of the delay.

One person confirmed they were able to swap the ear tips without issue, suggesting that the problem was fixed. Presumably, the other quality issues people were experiencing have also been resolved. It’s not clear how widespread the problems were, but considering Samsung paused sales, it seems like the problem was significant.

Hopefully this marks the end of quality issues with the Buds 3 Pro.

Distributed also on: Reddit, (2), (3) Via: Android Authority

Netflix ‘aggressively taking action’ after major anime leak, Crunchyroll also affected

Administrator — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 10:14:35 +0000

Netflix has responded to a major leak that resulted in entire anime episodes and movies hitting the web early.

In a statement to IGN, a Netflix spokesperson confirmed that one of its post-production partners has been compromised, leading to footage from several titles surfacing online. “Our team is aggressively taking action to have it taken down,” the representative added.

Earlier this week, footage from Netflix titles like Arcane Season 2, Terminator Zero, Dandadan, Ranma ½, and Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in the Rain hit the web. The leaked files feature burnt-in time stamps and watermarks as well as, in the case of Arcane, some unfinished renderings.

In a separate statement to the Los Angeles Times, a spokesperson for Sony-owned anime streaming service Crunchyroll confirmed that the third season of its Re:ZERO series has also leaked. “We are aware of a content leak ahead of one of our fall series,” said Crunchyroll in the statement. “We’ve opened an investigation to identify the source of this leak, and our team is taking action to have it taken down.”

While Terminator Zero premieres later this month, the other series are all set to hit Netflix or Crunchyroll in October or November, making these particularly early leaks. Therefore, you’ll want to exercise caution online.

Image credit: Netflix

Distributed also on: IGN

Public Mobile changes plans again, adds $45/65GB Canada/U.S. option

Administrator — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 10:12:43 +0000

Another day, another Public Mobile price change.

The Telus-owned wireless provider has tweaked plans for a third time this week. Here are all the latest changes:

$39/50GB 5G Canada/U.S. (unchanged)
$45/65GB 5G Canada/U.S. with 1,000 monthly long-distance minutes to select countries (previously $50/60GB 5G)
$35/50GB 4G (previously $36/50GB 5G)
$34/15GB 4G Canada/U.S. (unchanged)
$30/15GB 4G (unchanged)
$23/6GB 4G (unchanged)
$19/1GB 4G (unchanged)

The $45/mo plan’s long-distance minutes work for calls to China, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Taiwan, and the U.K.

These changes are a little odd. The $35/50GB 4G plan replacing the $36/50GB 5G plan is certainly strange, at least to me. I’m not sure how many people are clamouring for a 4G data plan like this, but hey, at least it’s better than what Koodo, Fido and Virgin have.

The $45/65GB plan, on the other hand, is actually an improvement over the $50/60GB plan while still coming in worse than the $44/80GB 5G Canada/U.S. plan that Public removed earlier this week. It appears to be an attempt to match Freedom’s $45/75GB 5G Canada/U.S./Mexico plan, but it doesn’t quite get there with less data and no Mexico roaming.

You can check out Public’s plans here.

I used Freedom Mobile as my main SIM for 10 months, here’s how it went

Administrator — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 10:11:16 +0000

After testing a Freedom Mobile SIM card last fall, I learned that the carrier could comfortably work in Toronto and at my parents’ house outside of Ottawa in a town called Renfrew. Then, on Black Friday (when I always do cell plan shopping), Freedom Mobile offered the best deal on a plan with Canada and U.S. Data ($45 for 50GB), so I decided to do a longer-term test throughout 2024.

Ten months later, I really don’t have anything bad to say about my experience. Instead, I am walking away happy that I can easily swap from any of the networks owned by Bell, Telus, Rogers, or Freedom (Owned by Videotron) without having to worry about hitting dead zones in places where all my friends have usable service.

A few years ago, most Freedom plans included 1-5GB of nationwide data on top of the 10-50GB of data for use on Freedom’s home networks. That all changed in 2023 when Videotron purchased the carrier and rolled out its current data structure, which includes nationwide coverage by default. As of the time of writing, many Freedom plans also include data in Canada and the U.S.; some even include data for Mexico.

How it went

For my day-to-day living in Toronto, Freedom has been a viable option for years, and up until more recently, was actually the only carrier that had service in some of the city’s subway tunnels. Two of my friends have been on Freedom since before it switched to nationwide, and they didn’t really seem to have any complaints. However, my parents living in a small town and the handful of camping trips I do every year always held me back from the once-regional carrier. Now that I’ve used it, I really can’t complain about the data speeds in Toronto. It’s always fast enough, and I’ve never found myself waiting long for things to download or post.

My first real test of the phone was earlier this summer when I went back to Massasauga Provincial Park to go camping. When I was there last summer, I was on Telus’ network and had usable service in most places throughout the park. This year, when I went there with Freedom, I was still able to use my data, but I will say that compared to my partner on Virgin, my data was slower, and I wasn’t able to stream things like TikTok or Instagram Reels like she could. That being said, I’m not that upset about only having slow-ish internet speeds when camping.

My second camping trip was in the Haliburton region below Algonquin Park, and again, I was able to use my data where we camped. This wasn’t super remote either, but once again, my data wasn’t super fast compared to some others on the trip, but it was still usable.

The only other note I would mention is that I also travelled to the U.S. a few times with this plan, and beyond accidentally burning all my data to watch a super crispy version of Ocean’s 11, which ultimately led to me getting scammed on a recent trip, I found it to work well. If I can stream Ocean’s 11 at 84 Mbps while roaming as a hotspot, I won’t complain.

The final note I’ll mention is that if you do switch to Freedom, you need to go into your phone’s cellular settings and turn roaming on all the time. This allows Freedom to give all users much better coverage than before. Since I have Canadian and U.S. data, I didn’t need to worry about any roaming settings when travelling.

Overall, I have no real complaints about my time with Freedom. If you want the fastest networks in most places, I still think Bell, Telus and Rogers will offer better connections, but for most people, Freedom is definitely a very viable alternative. If I wasn’t planning to switch again this Black Friday to test another network, I would happily stay on Freedom’s network as long as it continues to offer the best mobile networking deals.

These Delta emulator skins make your phone look like a real Game Boy

Administrator — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 10:09:39 +0000

I’ve been obsessed with the Delta emulator on my iPhone all summer. Playing DS games from my childhood anywhere has been a blast, but what really makes it all the sweeter is how nice Sean Fletcher’s skins look.

I’ve always dreamt of emulators on the iPhone since the design community that uses iOS aligns more with the styles and trends I like. That’s not to say there aren’t great emulators on Android; there are a ton, but I find more designers use Macs and iPhones, so by proxy, iOS apps tend to look nicer. This theory was validated when Delta launched on the App Store with a super clean design from the start, but roughly four months later, one skin pack has risen above them all, and it looks better than my dreams.

Fletcher started by making skins for the Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Colour emulators, but he’s recently branched out to start work on the DS skins. The Game Boy ones are called Delta Pocket, and there are a few varieties depending on how much you’re willing to spend.

The free tier nets you eight skins with solid colours, and four ‘Unlimited Editions’ that include more ambitious colours and cool retro screen filter effects. There are 12 more skins if you’re willing to pay $2. Those offer all kinds of design combos, such as Pokédex, Pikachu and retro handheld themes. There’s also a gold triforce version that looks a lot like the upcoming Switch Lite. This pack is my favourite since it includes the Pokédex and gold versions, plus one called Glacier, which looks like the clear plastic Game Boy Advance I had when I was ten.

The final pack is $5, and it’s only skins that mimic transparent plastic. Like Glacier, these look stunning, and the amount of detail and design work Fletcher must have put into them is jaw-dropping. Not only do they look real, but you can see fake moulding under the transparent plastic, and there is even a Delta logo that looks like it was stamped onto your iPhone’s motherboard.

During June, Fletcher released another pack full of skins to celebrate pride month. These are the same GBA/GBC skin layout, but they feature fun summer colours or rainbow designs. The proceeds from these skins went towards the Rainbow Road charity during June. He also released a limited edition rainbow transparent skin called ‘Dazzle Gleam’ that looks incredible, but it is only available once a year during June, so we’ll have to wait until next summer to get it.

It’s worth pointing out that the Pride skins all feature Pixel grid overlays, so if you don’t want your screen to emulate the actual screen of the Game Boy Advance, these may not be for you. The free version of Delta Pocket has no overlays, but the $2 Plus package includes a few skins with various Game Boy screen emulation overlays if you want to try some out. They look awesome, and very true to life, but I mostly avoid the overlays since they make the games a little darker.

The final skins are called Delta Duo, and they’re meant for the DS emulator. These look really clean in portrait mode, but they’re only meant for AirPlay when you turn them in landscape. These look just as good as the Delta Pocket skins, and I’m personally hoping Fletcher will make some landscape skins with both screens to be used on the go as well. My favourite one is Catchem FE, named after Ash Ketchum from Pokémon. It’s modelled after a Pokédex and has a really unique look with a faceted d-pad in multiple shades of teal.

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But it’s more than just the layout and the colours. When it comes to Fletcher’s designs, it’s the small details the make them a cut above the rest. The texture on the body of the fake controller looks so real you can almost touch it, and the soft shadows casting both from and on the buttons make them appear hyper-realistic. Don’t even get me started on the screens, which have been given soft round corners, and the shading around the fake bezels makes it almost look like there’s a sheet of glass over the displays.

If you want to download some of Fletcher’s skins, some are available for free, while packs can cost anywhere from $2-$5. He’s created a really fun retro-inspired instruction booklet and product catalogue that can help you learn more about skins as well. All of the skins are available on his Gumroad store.

Telecom news roundup: Public’s plan changes and Bell’s fast 5G [Aug 3-9]

Administrator — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 10:07:50 +0000

It was a lighter week for telecom news, with only a handful of stories after tons of news last week. Here’s what you need to know:

Pricing and deals

Telus-owned Public Mobile made a few changes this week. It removed its 80GB plans for a more expensive 60GB plan, raised the price of its 50GB plan, then removed the plan entirely for a new $45/65GB option.

Infrastructure

Opensignal’s latest report named Bell’s 5G as the fastest, while Rogers’ network claimed the title for most consistent.

Telus announced it will bring fibre internet to Doig River, B.C.

You can find this week’s rate plan changes here and last week’s telecom roundup here.

Where to stream the Alien movies in Canada before Alien: Romulus

Administrator — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 10:06:01 +0000

Alien is back.

On August 16th, the long-running sci-fi horror series’ latest entry, Alien: Romulus, will open in theatres worldwide. So far, the reaction from those who have seen it early has been overwhelmingly positive.

Directed by Fede Álvarez (2013’s Evil Dead), Romulus follows a group of young space colonists on a derelict space station as they encounter the Xenomorph in between the events of Alien and Aliens. The film stars Cailee Spaeny (Civil War), David Jonsson (Industry), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Isabela Merced (Dora and the Lost City of Gold), Spike Fearn (Tell Me Everything) and Aileen Wu (Skin).

While Romulus is a standalone entry in the Alien series, you might still want to revisit the other movies. With that in mind, we’ve rounded up where you can stream all six Alien films in Canada.

And for good measure, here’s where you can stream the two Alien and Predator crossover movies:

Alien vs. Predator (2004) — Disney+
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) — Disney+

Do you prefer Alien or Aliens? Where do you stand on the much-maligned Alien 3? Are you excited to see Alien: Romulus? Let us know in the comments.

Image credit: Fox

The Galaxy Buds 3 Pros are great Android/Windows earbuds

Administrator — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 10:03:38 +0000

Samsung’s latest Galaxy Buds 3 Pro continue the company’s many-year streak of making great earbuds with a comfortable design, great sound quality, and solid battery life. You can argue that the design copies Apple’s AirPods, but it brings welcome improvement to the buds’ microphones and touch controls that are worth the trade-off.

I’d also argue that the silver model I tested did enough to stand out with their angular design, metallic sheen and cool light blades. The blades, while fairly useless in practice, even give the white models a sharp design when in your ears. The case makes you twist the earbuds a little awkwardly to place them inside, but beyond that, it’s a solid design, and the clear lid is a nice touch. I also like the small pops of colour that tell you which earbud goes in which charging port.

Overall, I actually really like the look of these buds in silver and I hope that Samsung sticks with it for at least a few more generations. It’s simple, looks good in the ear, and, more importantly, helps the buds feel more premium than plastic earbuds should feel.

In my testing, the buds easily lasted somewhere between the quoted 5-6 hour mark, depending on how much active noise cancelling (ANC) I was using. The case adds another roughly 20 hours or so, meaning these buds can easily go for days. You can charge the buds quickly with a USB-C port, or you can use a wireless charger for a slightly slower top-up.

Samsung also added adaptive noise-cancelling, which is decently powerful and seemed to do a decent job at modulating loud sounds as I moved around the city. The regular ANC is also fine and will block out a majority of noise, but it’s not the best I’ve heard, with OnePlus, Apple and Google offering more solid options if you want to block out all sounds. I haven’t tested them, but I have heard great things about the ANC on Bose’s earbuds as well. That being said, at the end of the day, once you have some audio going, the ANC does a really good job of isolating you.

In addition, the actual sound quality these buds deliver is tremendous, and once again, Samsung proves that buying Harman a few years ago was well worth it. Plus, being able to control them with the easier-to-use controls on the stems makes for a really pleasing listening experience compared to older models.

I am a bit disappointed that Samsung decided not to put in a universal form of multipoint connection. Still, I’m happy that it at least supports fast pairing systems for Windows and Android, so it is relatively easy to connect to and reconnect to devices as you move throughout your day. If you use a Windows computer with Bluetooth earbuds often, this feature alone should make connecting them much easier. You can still use Samsung’s Auto Switch feature to move the buds between Samsung wearables, phones and tablets, but it doesn’t include most laptops, which is one of the main devices people usually connect headphones to.

If you want to order Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, you can now, but I would wait a little bit to see if Samsung announces a fix for its earbud tips, which many users have reported are very easy to break. (Note: before this was published, Samsung started shipping out the Buds 3 Pro again, suggesting the quality issues have been addressed.) I didn’t break mine during my test, but I can see how people have. You need to use a lot of force to remove the tips.

If you don’t make a lot of calls with your buds, you can also get Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, which are cheaper and also offer superb audio quality. I’m also a fan of the standard Galaxy Buds 3 if you don’t really care about ANC.

At the end of my week of testing these buds, I can’t say they’ve left much of an impression on me. They look cool and feature good microphones and decent ANC, but since they’re $329 in Canada, I think many Canadians will be able to get comparable buds for less. It’s also worth remembering that Samsung earbuds often get pretty good discounts a few times per year.