Canadian Reviewer Weekly Roundup - 2/26- 3/4

Xiaomi 13 & 13 Pro bring Leica-equipped cameras to the international market

OnePlus 11 Concept demos new cooling tech for smartphones 

Xiaomi 13 Lite brings dual-selfie cameras

Canada bans TikTok use on government devices 

Tecno Phantom V Fold debuts at MWC 2023 

Snapchat launches a ChatGPT-powered My AI chatbot

Microsoft Phone Link update brings iMessage support to Windows PCs

Redmi introduces 300W fast-charging tech

Rogers and Microsoft partner for Azure Programmable Connectivity 5G developer platform 

TikTok sets a default 60-minute daily screen time limit for teens 

OPPO Zero-Power Tag prototype won't need AirTag-style batteries 

Facebook increases Reels max length to 90 seconds 

Apple's Cloud Chief Michael Abbott will reportedly leave the company in April 

'Diablo II' veterans reunite to make an action RPG 

'Diablo II' veterans reunite to make an action RPG

Image: Moon Beast Productions

Moon Beast Productions—an indie studio founded by Phil Shenk and Peter Hu, two former Blizzard North developers—announced it hired Diablo series co-creator Erich Schaefer to work on a new action RPG. He will serve as lead creator director for the project we don't know much about yet. But it looks like Moon Beast shared enough with Schaefer to convince him to come out of retirement.

Click to read more ...

Apple's Cloud Chief Michael Abbott will reportedly leave the company in April

Photo: Michael Abbott

Apple's top executive in charge of its cloud initiatives is reportedly leaving the company next month, in April. Michael Abbott will be the latest in a wave of recent departures from Apple. He is the second top lieutenant to services head Eddy Cue to leave this year. Abbott is in charge of services and technologies like iCloud.com, iCloud Mail, and the new iCloud data encryption. He also runs the platform that powers services like iCloud, FaceTime, iMessage, Find My feature, and Emergency SOS on iPhones, among others.

In recent years, Abbott has hired several cloud industry leaders to improve Apple's operations, but the integration of the new talent hasn't reportedly gone smoothly as hoped. Abbott has held his role for five years. He joined the company in 2018 after serving as an investor at venture capital company Kleiner Perkins and as an executive at Microsoft, Palm, and Twitter. Jeff Robbin will take over Abbott's responsibilities. Robbin is considered one of the company's most senior engineering leaders, and he's credited with creating iTunes. He has long managed engineering for several services under Cue.

Source

Facebook increases Reels max length to 90 seconds

Image: Meta

Meta is increasing the maximum length of Facebook's Reels up to 90 seconds. This is a 30-second increase from its existing time limit. Instagram Reels already extended its limit to 90 seconds last July. But both still fall far short of TikTok's maximum length of 10 minutes. Facebook users will also soon get the option to automatically sync their clips to a song's beat. Meta calls this upcoming feature Grooves, which will use "visual beat technology" to automatically align motion to the beat of a song.

Facebook Reels users will also get an easy way to generate Reels from memories alongside using trending templates for your videos. Meta says Reels is its fastest-growing format, with Reels plays on both Facebook and Instagram more than doubling over the past year and Reels getting double the reshares in the last six months as well.

Source