Facebook acquires Giphy, reportedly for US$400 million

Facebook has acquired GIF-sharing service Giphy and plans to make it part of the Instagram team. Facebook didn't reveal how much it paid for to buy Giphy, but Axios reports that it's priced at around US$400 million. Giphy is expected to keep its branding, but it'll be primarily integrated into Instagram. GIFs are prevalent and used heavily in Instagram Stories, so having more access to a GIF-sharing service could work in Facebook's favour. We might expect to see it more integrated into other Facebook services as well.

Source: Engadget

Fido Xtra perk gives subscribers two free months of YouTube Premium

Fido postpaid subscribers in good standing get a new Fido Xtra perk: free access to YouTube Premium for two months. You can redeem the offer until July 1, 2020. Head to the Fido My Account to get the perk. YouTube Premium is an ad-free YouTube experience where you can download videos to watch offline. It lets you play videos in the background while using other apps or when the device is locked. Plus, you get access to YouTube Music Premium, too. YouTube Premium costs $11.99 a month in Canada.

Source: iPhone in Canada

Google rolls out new Nest Aware plans in Canada

The simplified, more cost-effective Nest Aware plans are now available in Canada, which comes seven months since Google introduced these new subscriptions. Nest used to charge $5, $10, $30 per month and camera, depending on how many days of video history users wanted. Now, you can avail of either Nest Aware or Nest Aware Plus subscriptions. Nest Aware costs $8 per month or $80 a year, including 30-day "event video history." Nest Aware Plus costs $16 a month or $160 annually, including 60-day event video history and 10-day 24/7 video history. Event video history is the recordings of motion and sound captured by Nest cameras.

Both plans cover all Nest camera devices you have as well as products like Nest Mini, Google Home and Home Max, Nest Hub and Hub Max, and Nest Wifi Point. Both plans also offer "intelligent alerts," which will let you know when a Nest camera detects sounds or a person, and "activity zones," which you can define and then have Nest alert you when something happens in those areas. If you have an existing subscription, you can upgrade through the Google Store.

Source: MobileSyrup + iPhone in Canada

Epic Games Store crashes because people want to get 'GTA V' for free

Epic Games seems to have accidentally pre-empted the news that it'll be offering GTA V for free with this now-deleted Twitter ad

News broke last night that the Epic Games Store will be offering the popular Rockstar game Grand Theft Auto V for free. And it seems that's causing issues with the digital storefront. An hour or so ago, Epic Games tweeted: "We are currently experiencing high traffic on the Epic Games Store. We are aware that users may be encountering slow loading times, 500 errors, or launcher crashing at this time and we are actively working to scale. We'll provide an update as soon as we can." The company hasn't acknowledged a now-deleted Twitter ad that teased the upcoming release. But players who were waiting for 11 am ET for the game's release seemed to have crashed the site because of it. 

As The Verge reports, it looks like it's causing trouble for other Epic services, too. An official Fortnite Twitter account tweeted they are "investigating issues" on the PC and Mac. Hopefully, Epic Games resolves the issue soon so players can get their hands on the game. But you have to make sure you enable two-factor authentication within the app store. That's now a requirement Epic Games is enforcing. GTA V will supposedly be available for free until May 21.