Roam Mobility to cease operations on June 30 permanently

Canadian-U.S. roaming service Roam Mobility will be closing its doors on June 30, 2020. The company said in a recent email, "We apologize to everyone who has relied on our service for US travel. Our mission has always been to help travellers stay connected and productive without the burden of expensive roaming fees or contracts." While the COVID-19 pandemic might not have helped its cause, the roaming service's usage took a downturn. Most major Canadian carriers and some of its flanker brands could use their mobile data allotment in the US (and sometimes in other countries) for a fee.

All Roam SIM sales and activations were suspended on May 21, with the top-up feature to be stopped on June 15. When June 30 rolls around, those with unused data will be refunded to customers with existing active plans. Those numbers associated with Roam SIM cards will be permanently deactivated. Customers who bought a SIM but haven't activated it can fill out a request form before August 31 to get a refund. Or you can request store credit reimbursement as well.

Source: MobileSyrup

Rogers partners with Apple to loan iPads with free data plans to Winnipeg School Division

Rogers and Apple have announced that they will be helping out the Winnipeg School Division in Manitoba by lending iPads with free data plans to assist with remote learning. The iPads are seen as a secure and easy-to-use for the students studying at home because the COVID-19 pandemic has forced school closures.

Rogers is offering three months of free data on these cellular iPads, while Apple will also supply resources to teachers, parents, and students via free apps, books, and videos to help with home learning. The data plan is expected to cover the end of the current school year until summer. When classes resume, the loaner iPads will be used in classrooms.

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HTC will reportedly debut a 5G phone in July

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Despite encountering losses in its smartphone business, HTC looks like it wants to give the segment another try. Gizmochina reports that HTC Tawain's Chen Boyou recently said that when 5G arrives in Taiwan, HTC will launch 5G-ready phones. Rumour has it the first 5G phone will come in July, but we don't know whether it'll be a flagship device. The last flagships the company released were the HTC Exodus 1 and HTC U12+ back in 2018. PocketNow reports that a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor will power it. 

Aside from the 5G device, HTC will reportedly launch a 4G-only Desire 20 series mid-range device next month, which is believed to be the HTC Desire 20 Pro. The handset will supposedly run on a Snapdragon 665 chipset and 6GB of RAM, plus it'll have a triple-camera system, fingerprint reader, and HTC's first punch-hole display phone.

Mac OS 15.5.5 update introduces Battery Health Management for MacBooks

The latest update to Mac OS 10.5 Catalina has a new Battery Health Management setting that will enhance how MacBooks manage battery life specially for laptops that are often plugged in and docked for extended periods of time daily.

Granular battery management ensures that batteries last longer through time. From what we understand, this feature prevents batteries from charging to 100 percent, which increase temperature and shorten battery life. You might want to turn this off if you're going on a longer trip and need to max out your charge. Only a company like Apple, who creates the hardware as well as the OS and software integration can offer this level of control.

Apple said that the Battery Health Management feature will be available on all MacBooks that are equipped with Thunderbolt 3, so that means all MacBook Pro models from 2016 and later, and the 2018 or later MacBook Air.