Syrupcast

This week on the SyrupCast, Brad Shankar, Rose Behar, Sameer Chhabra, and Patrick O'Rourke discuss the iPhone X now that the team actually has one in the office, as well as theXbox One X. Patrick, in an impressive feat of journalism, flew to New York this week to pick up the iPhone X for an initial impressions review he completed in less than 24 hours. The team discusses what it is like to use an Apple interface with no home button and the intricacies of Face ID, Apple's new facial recognition authentication system.  Moving on the the other X product that dropped this week. Microsoft's Xbox One X has officially hit the shelves. The console, which boasts true 4K capabilities, is also capable of running previous Xbox One games, which ensures that consumers won't be left scrambling to buy all new games. Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's thoughts. Hosts: Brad Shankar,Rose Behar,Sameer Chhabra and Patrick O'Rourke Do you have questions, comments, thoughts, or anything you would like addressed on the podcast? Se

This week on the SyrupCast, Ian Hardy, Rose Behar, Dean Daley, and Patrick O'Rourke discuss two of the year's most highly anticipated phones; the recently released Pixel 2XL, and the iPhone X. Earlier this week was saw reports that the Pixel 2 XL's POLED screen is suffering from display burn-in issues. Problems like this usually pop up following years of usage, but the issues with the Pixel 2 XL's display are appearing just days after purchasing the device. Note: This weeks' SyrupCast was recorded prior to Google stating that the company plans to release a software update that will mitigate the screen burn-in problem the Pixel 2 XL suffers from. Speaking of manufacturing issues -- Google isn't the only company with supply chain problems. Apple is reportedly having difficulty sourcing specific parts for the upcoming iPhone X. The phone makes use of new Face ID authentication technology that is difficult to manufacture to the accuracy necessary for reliable functionality. Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's t

This week on the SyrupCast, Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar, Sameer Chhabra, and Patrick O'Rourke discuss their thoughts on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. The team also weighs in on the announcement that Alphabet is investing in Toronto. Rose and Patrick both had the opportunity to review the brand new Pixel phones this week. The two chime in to give the team a well-rounded perspective on the updates to Google's new flagship smartphone. Toronto is putting a bid in to bring the city into the future. Not only is Alphabet staking a claim to making Toronto a smart city, the #6ix is also doing its best to attract Amazon's HQ2. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks getting a new Amazon headquarters is what Toronto needs. Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's thoughts. Do you have questions, comments, thoughts, or anything you would like addressed on the podcast? Send us an email to podcast@mobilesyrup.com. If you're feeling extra adventurous, send us a voice recording of your question or comment and you may end up featured in

This week on the SyrupCast, Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar, and Patrick O'Rourke break down the details of roaming with Canadian cell phones. The team is constantly on the road for press events, so they have a few tips and tricks up their sleeves to share with you. Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team discuss their favourite roaming options, what services might cost you a surprising amount, and their thoughts on how roaming could be made better. Do you have questions, comments, thoughts, or anything you would like addressed on the podcast? Send us an email to podcast@mobilesyrup.com. If you're feeling extra adventurous, send us a voice recording of your question or comment and you may end up featured in a future episode! Hosts: Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar, Patrick O'Rourke Total runtime: 34:47 Shoutouts: 28:24 Rose is talking about The Swift Life. Patrick, during the #SwitchMinute, shouts out Nintendo creating a Gameboy mini. Finally, Igor's shoutout goes to Blade Runner 2049  See acast.com/privacy for pri

This week on the SyrupCast, Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar, and Patrick O'Rourke are joined by MobileSyrup contributor Ted Kritsonis to talk about Google's Pixel event and all things Sonos. The team does a deep dive into Google's recently revealed Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. Among the other announcements at the Google event were  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week on the SyrupCast Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar, and Patrick O'Rourke discuss Netflix's announcement to dedicate half a billion dollars to Canadian content. Canadian heritage minister Mélanie Joly revealed the new deal with the American streaming giant that will see Netflix develop a Canadian production 'presence' and contribute $500 million to Canadian content over the next five years. It has yet to be revealed if the deal will entail a Canadian office and whether it will affect the tax status for the service in Canada. Reactions from Canada's media providers are mixed, but more details about Netflix's deal with the Canadian government still needs to be revealed. Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's thoughts. Do you have questions, comments, thoughts, or anything you would like addressed on the podcast? Send us an email to podcast@mobilesyrup.com. If you're feeling extra adventurous, send us a voice recording of your question or comment and you may end up featured in a future episode! Hosts: Igor Bonif

This week on the SyrupCast, Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar, Sameer Chhabra, and Patrick O'Rourke sit down to talk Apple reviews and get Frank about phones. Patrick was at the Apple keynote recently and had the chance to check out all of Apple's new devices: the iPhone 8, the iPhone 8 Plus, the Apple Watch Series 3 and the Apple TV 4K. He sits down with the team to discuss his thoughts on the new devices and where Apple may be headed. Two young entrepreneurs in Ottawa found themselves in a bit of hot water recently after taking credit for designing a phone that was actually just a rebranded device purchase from Alibaba. Rose brings us a story about the Frank phone and sheds some light on both sides of the controversy.  Finally, everyone's favourite part of phone announcements -- the leaks that tend to preempt them. The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL designs have hit the web in advance of their official unveiling. The Syrupcast crew weighs in on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL's rumoured new look Tune in to hear the SyrupCast

This week on the SyrupCast, Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar, and Patrick O'Rourke are joined by Josh McConnell, technology editor at the Financial Post, to discuss all the announcements from Apple's keynote. The Apple presentation this week showed off a variety of new devices, including the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, the iPhone X, the Apple watch 3 and a the Apple TV 4K. Both Patrick and Josh were in attendance at the much anticipated event and have plenty of takeaways to share with the SyrupCast crew. Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's thoughts. Do you have questions, comments, thoughts, or anything you would like addressed on the podcast? Send us an email to podcast@mobilesyrup.com. If you're feeling extra adventurous, send us a voice recording of your question or comment and you may end up featured in a future episode! Hosts: Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar, Patrick O'Rourke and Josh McConnell Total runtime: 41:16 Apple fall event: 2:00 Shoutouts: 36:46 Josh's shoutout goes to Patxi's Pizza. Rose is talking about Navde

This week on the SyrupCast, Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar, Sameer Chhabra, and Patrick O'Rourke do their best to predict what will be unveiled at Apple's upcoming event. Apple's iPhone 8 keynote is coming up soon on September 12th, so the team sits down and does their best to predict all the announcements they expect to see at the keynote. It's anticipated that there will be a few new iPhones, a 4K Apple TV set-top box, and possibly a new LTE Apple Watch as well. This week also marks a SyrupCast milestone -- our first audio listener question! Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's thoughts. Hosts: Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar, Sameer Chhabra, and Patrick O'Rourke Do you have questions, comments, thoughts, or anything you would like addressed on the podcast? Send us an email to podcast@mobilesyrup.com. If you're feeling extra adventurous, send us a voice recording of your question or comment and you may end up featured in a future episode! Total runtime: 45:00 Apple predictions: 1:30 Listener questions: 27:30 Shoutou

This week on the SyrupCast, Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar, Ted Kritsonis, and Patrick O'Rourke dig into the pending rivalry between Google and Apple's AR offerings. WWDC this year brought us ARKit from Apple, but there is now another option for developers -- ARCore from Google. As the consumer version of iOS 11 is hitting phones in a few weeks, this arms race is bound to continue heating up. With the Samsung Note series back in action and the LG V30 recently revealed, the SyrupCast is comparing and contrasting flagship phones. Ted and Patrick were both at the release events and give their thoughts on what both phones have to offer. Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's thoughts. Hosts: Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar, Ted Kritsonis, and Patrick O'Rourke Do you have questions, comments, thoughts, or anything you would like addressed on the podcast? Send us an email to podcast@mobilesyrup.com. If you're feeling extra adventurous, send us a voice recording of your question or comment and you may end up featured in a fut

This week on the SyrupCast, Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar, Ian Hardy, and Sameer Chhabra discuss Samsung's triumphant return to the Note series and the increase in Rogers' Roam Like Home pricing. Last year's Note 7 issues are behind us now, but the reminders of Samsung's problems can still be found at airports. The SyrupCast crew is wondering if the release of the Note 8 will be enough to overcome the Note 7's errors. Additionally, they're pondering how the Note 8 stacks up in comparison to the other smartphone options now. With the Essential phone, Samsung's own Galaxy S8 and S8+ phones, and the pending iPhone 8 launch - competition is fierce. In other mobile news this week, Roger's has increased the price of their Roam Like Home deal. The option has increased to $6 per day. Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's thoughts. Hosts: Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar, Ian Hardy and Sameer Chhabra Do you have questions, comments, thoughts, or anything you would like addressed on the podcast? Send us an email to podcast@mobil

This week on the SyrupCast, Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar, Dean Daley, Sameer Chhabra, and Brad Shankar discuss their thoughts about the Essential phone and discuss the direction streaming video platforms are headed. Igor recently got his hands on the Essential phone and outlines his first impressions of the device on the podcast. Is it possible for Andy Rubin to break into the already crowded Android market space? Sameer leads the back half of the podcast with a deep dive discussion on the direction streaming seems to be going. Disney announced last week that it will be pulling content from Netflix to start it's own streaming platform. It isn't the only company with sights set on getting into the streaming game, which has the team wondering -- how many services will we need to buy into to see the content we want to see? Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's thoughts.   Do you have questions, comments, thoughts, or anything you would like addressed on the podcast? Send us an email to podcast@mobilesyrup.com. If y

This week on the SyrupCast, Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar and Patrick O'Rourke are joined once again by Tom Emrich, founder of We Are Wearables and partner at Super Ventures, to talk about the recent iPhone 8 leaks. Last week, major leaks about the much anticipated iPhone 8 surfaced thanks to Apple's release of HomePod firmware. Contained within the software update were references that gave away some of the secret sauce about updates to the soon-to-come iPhone. Among the biggest spoilers: face unlock using BiometricKit, no more home button, a wrap-around display design, and a tap-to-wake function. In other smart device news, Fitbit seems to be leaning into the smart watch market. The team discusses what this might look like and wonders, does the world need another smartwatch? Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's thoughts.   Today’s podcast is brought to you by Aviva Canada, a leading property and casualty insurance group providing home, automobile, leisure/lifestyle and business insurance to 2.9 million custome

This week on the SyrupCast, Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar and Patrick O'Rourke are joined by Tom Emrich, Founder of We Are Wearables and Partner at Super Ventures, to talk about Apple's ARKit and the future of reality. This past week, Rose jetted off to the west coast to learn about the ZenFone AR. This ASUS phone is Tengo-enabled and even Google Daydream VR certified. Discussing this new phone gets the team thinking about the future of mobile tech and AR/VR. What does the future hold? Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's thoughts. Do you have questions, comments, thoughts, or anything you would like addressed on the podcast? Send us an email to podcast@mobilesyrup.com. If you're feeling extra adventurous, send us a voice recording of your question or comment and you may end up featured in a future episode! Hosts: Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar, Patrick O'Rourke, andTom Emrich   Total runtime: 34:23 Shoutouts: 29:10 Patrick, on the #SwitchMinute, shouts out a long-wanted battery-monitoring fix from Nintendo. Tom giv

This week on the SyrupCast, Igor Bonifacic, Jessica Galang, Dean Daley, and Brad Shankar are bringing you a special episode on their favourite seventh generation video games. Fair warning, dear listeners, this week's episode contains spoilers. Jessica, news editor at BetaKit, goes first and chooses The Last of Us, Bioshock and Catherine. Dean gives his top three picks to Skyrim, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and Dishonoured. Brad's selections are Uncharted 2, Mass Effect 2, and Batman: Arkham City. Last, but not least, Igor picks Red Dead Redemption, Dead Space 2, and Assassin's Creed 2. Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's thoughts on each game. Do you have questions, comments, thoughts, or anything you would like addressed on the podcast? Send us an email to podcast@mobilesyrup.com. If you're feeling extra adventurous, send us a voice recording of your question or comment and you may end up featured in a future episode! Hosts: Igor Bonifacic, Jessica Galang, Dean Daley, and Brad Shankar Total runtime: 33:3

This week on the SyrupCast, Igor Bonifacic, Rose Behar and Patrick O'Rourke are joined by Peter Nowak to talk about former Telus executive, Ian Scott, joining the CRTC and the future of wireless in Canada. Scott, who has 25 years of experience in the Telecom industry, will be taking over as the head of the CRTC. The team is wondering if Scott will follow in the footsteps of Jean-Pierre Blais and be a consumer advocate, or if he will toe the party line. As the government works hard to ensure fair rulings in Telecom, the industry itself is trying to push for improved technology and better offerings. Huawei and Telus just finished testing 5G technology in BC and the advances has the SyrupCast team pondering the future impact on wireless in Canada. Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's thoughts. Do you have questions, comments, thoughts, or anything you would like addressed on the podcast? Send us an email to podcast@mobilesyrup.com. If you're feeling extra adventurous, send us a voice recording of your question

This week on the SyrupCast, Igor Bonifacic, Dean Daley, Rose Behar and Patrick O'Rourke, talk about Fido's announcement to offer five free hours of data per month to their Pulse plan customers. The announcement comes just a week after Roger's, the owner of Fido, bumped their data overage charges up significantly. Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's thoughts. Do you have questions, comments, thoughts, or anything you would like addressed on the podcast? Send us an email to podcast@mobilesyrup.com. If you're feeling extra adventurous, send us a voice recording of your question or comment and you may end up featured in a future episode! Hosts: Igor Bonifacic, Patrick O'Rourke, Rose Behar and Dean Daley Total runtime: 35:05 Fido: 1:10 Shoutouts: 28:45   Patrick, on the #SwitchMinute, shouts out Arms -- a game he didn't anticipate liking. Dean gives his shoutout to Android Police and their rendering of  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week on the SyrupCast, Igor Bonifacic, Zach Gilbert, Rose Behar and Patrick O'Rourke, discuss the ever increasing costs of owning a smartphone in Canada and get nostalgic about the past. Rogers increased its data overage rate this week by 40 percent and this has a lot of consumers up in arms. The team discusses what this rate hikes mean to the average consumer, why the cost has gone up so drastically, and what we can expect to see from the other carriers following this increase. Last week marked the 10th anniversary of the iPhone (at least in the States), so the SyrupCast crew is getting nostalgic over smartphones of the past and talking about their personal favourites. Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's thoughts. Do you have questions, comments, thoughts, or anything you would like addressed on the podcast? Send us an email to podcast@mobilesyrup.com. If you're feeling extra adventurous, send us a voice recording of your question or comment and you may end up featured in a future episode!  Hosts: Igor

This week, the SyrupCast crew -- Igor Bonifacic, Zach Gilbert, and Patrick O'Rourke -- are joined by tech journalist and MobileSyrup contributor, Teddy Kritsonis, to discuss the Google Home coming to Canada and the release of iOS 11 beta. Canadian's have been long awaiting the arrival of a smart speaker north of the border. The Google Home is the first to be released officially in Canada and both Teddy and Patrick have had the opportunity to set one up and use them in their homes. This week also saw the public release of Apple's latest mobile OS, iOS 11. Zach and Patrick have downloaded and installed the update on their phones and tested out some of the operating system's newest features. Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's thoughts. Do you have questions, comments, thoughts, or anything you would like addressed on the podcast? Send us an email to podcast@mobilesyrup.com. If you're feeling extra adventurous, send us a voice recording of your question or comment and you may end up featured in a future episod

Last week under the leadership of departing Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais, the CRTC announced that Canadian carriers can no longer charge unlocking fees. As of December 1st, 2017, all phones sold in Canada will no longer be carrier-locked. The decision is being touted as a win by consumer advocates because it means that the barrier to switching carriers and finding more competitive rates, has just been significantly minimized. This week, the SyrupCast crew -- Igor Bonifacic, Ian Hardy, and Rose Behar -- are joined by Globe and Mail telecom reporter, Christine Dobby, to discuss the tenure of CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais and the rulings that have been set out under his leadership. Tune in to hear the SyrupCast team's thoughts. Do you have questions, comments, thoughts, or anything you would like addressed on the podcast? Send us an email to podcast@mobilesyrup.com. If you're feeling extra adventurous, send us a voice recording of your question or comment and you may end up featured in a future episode. Hosts: