Tech News Roundup for June 23, 2022
Here are a few of the stories I’ve found interesting over the past few days. I don’t have access to Twitter Notes, so I guess I’ll continue to use the wider Internet like an old person.
Canadian Wireless Carriers Turn to Speed Caps
A new trend in the wireless industry in Canada appears to be speed caps. Just like our home internet, where users pay based on the maximum connection speed, wireless providers are starting to take this tactic. With the maximum speeds possible with 5G being at least as fast as home internet, this is an unfortunate, if predictable tactic. Telus was among the first to start the trend, capping speeds at 250mbps on its cheaper plans, and allowing up to gigabit speeds on the two most expensive plans. Bell followed suit, but Rogers still does not limit speeds.
However, Rogers sub brand Fido has introduce a 150mbps cap on all of its plans, and looking at Bell’s Virgin Plus brand and Telus’ Koodo brand, it looks like all 3 sub brands limit phones to the 4G network instead of 5G, which brings lower speeds with it.
Like I said, this is a predictable, if unfortunate change. In reality absolute speed doesn’t matter nearly as much on mobile devices, but putting access to faster speeds behind more expensive plans is just another way for the wireless providers to squeeze every last dime out of their customers.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2022/06/22/fido-data-speed-cap-mobile-plans/
Google News Gets Desktop Redesign
Google News has received a big overhaul on desktop browsers. The new look Google News resembles the mobile app much more closely, and looks much more modern. Google News is a very good news aggregator, and one I use every day. This new update looks great.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/22/23178163/google-news-desktop-redesign-personal-local-content
Microsoft Brining Upgrades to Xbox Cloud Gaming
Microsoft is bringing a couple improvements to Xbox Cloud Gaming on PC. The company will be adding mouse and keyboard support, but that comes with a catch. Since Xbox Cloud Gaming streams the Xbox versions of games, not the PC versions, developers have to add keyboard and mouse support to the Xbox versions of games. Xbox One and Xbox Series X and S already accept keyboard and mouse for games that support it, but that list is very small. Adding keyboard and mouse support would require work for developers, even if there is already a PC version of their games.
The other improvement to Xbox Cloud gaming is lower latency through a new video capture API. Lower latency is key to making cloud gaming work, as any delay between controller input and the screen makes cloud gaming difficult to use. The tradeoff of this new API is that it only supports up to 1440p resolution, and does not support HDR at all. Resolution is a bit less of an issue at this time, but losing HDR support would be nice. Game streaming is still in its infancy, and there is still work to do.
Twitter Notes Tests Long Form Posting Inside The App
Twitter remains busy, even as the board approves the sale of the company to Elon Musk. While we wait for shareholders to vote on the plan, the company is still rolling out new features. The newest test is called “notes.” It is a way for users to post long form messages akin to Medium posts (or dare I say; old school blogs like this one). The experience lives entirely within the Twitter website or app, clicking on a note attached to a tweet opens up a long form post. Twitter is testing the feature in a few markets, Canada included, but it is limiting the feature to a small number of creators at this time.
The goal of Twitter Notes appears to be a way to give users a way to avoid needing to create a twitter thread with 20+ posts, or posting a screenshot of something written in another app. The concept is sound, but the actual usefulness remains to be seen.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2022/06/22/twitter-notes-long-form-writing-tool-canada-test/
Apple MacBook Pro 13” With M2 Reviews Hit
The least interesting laptop in the Apple Lineup also provides the most interesting test case. The 13” MacBook Pro received only a spec bump this year, putting the new M2 processor into the same design, where the MacBook Air got a complete redesign. This gave reviewers the ability to directly compare the M1 processor to the M2, and test Apple’s claims of improvements with the M2. The M2 processor seems to mostly deliver the upgrade in speed that Apple promised, and the 13” MacBook Pro is a solid upgrade from the M1 model. However, the 13” MacBook pro is a now dated design compared to the rest of Apple’s lineup, so it remains unclear who that computer is actually for. We will have to wait for reviews of the new M2 MacBook Air to get a definitive answer on that.
Ikea Launches New AR Furniture App
AR apps remain limited in their usefulness, but companies are trying to build experiences and use cases that make sense. The latest attempt comes from Ikea, with the IKEA Kreativ app. Available for iOS (Android version coming “in the next couple of months”) the Kreativ app lets users use their smartphone camera to take a 3D scan of a space. Like other AR apps before it, users can place virtual Ikea furniture in the space to see how it looks. The new trick with Kreativ is that users can also remove existing furniture from the virtual map of the room. This allows someone to say, remove an old couch and replace it with an Ikea couch to see how it would look in the space.
Adding things to a virtual representation of a space may be nothing new, but the ability to replace items is interesting, and might actually make IKEA Kreativ a useful tool. I’m definitely interested in trying it out.