Canadian Reviewer Weekly Roundup – 4/19 – 4/25

Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite shows up on Best Buy Canada for $429.99

Netflix offers some of its documentaries for free on YouTube 

Spotify Premium users can now hide songs they don't like in playlists 

Microsoft's 'Planetary Computer' wants to help preserve biodiversity 

Apple iPhone SE is expected to arrive in Canada in the second week of May 

What Makes the Shazam App So Popular? 

Sony PlayStation Now's annual subscription is 25% off for new Canadian subscribers 

'Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes' adds 'The Mandalorian' characters 

OnePlus 8 series supports Google Stadia 

Apple extends Services availability to more countries 

Epic Games begrudgingly brings 'Fortnite' to Google Play Store 

Warner Bros.'s 'Scoob!' will be heading straight to video on demand on May 15 

Netflix acquires rights to 'Enola Holmes' film 

Google Meet gets a Zoom-like gallery view, among other new features 

Disney teases 'The Mandalorian' docuseries 

WhatsApp will reportedly support 8 people for group calls 

'Beastie Boys Story' documentary kicks off on Apple TV+ 

Google improves Assistant's Voice Match capability 

Facebook takes on Zoom with Messenger Rooms 

'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' sequel gets pushed back to October 2022

The sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is one of the movies affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Its release gets pushed back to October 7, 2022, instead of April 8 of the same year. The update was announced over the film's official Twitter account. Joaquim Dos Santos will direct the sequel. He will be joined by screenwriter David Callaham, who worked on movies like Wonder Woman 1984 and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Source: ComingSoon

Facebook takes on Zoom with Messenger Rooms

Facebook hopes to take on Zoom and its ability to host video calls involving large groups of people with its new Messenger Rooms feature. And like Zoom, participants won't need to have a Facebook account to join. Users can host video chats with up to 50 people, and those without Facebook accounts will receive a link to the Room a Facebook user has created and then be redirected to a browser window. For Rooms created through a Facebook Group are open by default to Group members.

If you use the Messenger app to join a Zoom, you can use AR effects as well as new features like immersive backgrounds and mood lighting. The one who creates the Room gets to choose who can see and join the chat. They can remove anyone from the call at any time or lock the Room if they don't want anyone else to join. Participants can leave anytime they want, too. Messenger Rooms have no time limit whatsoever.

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Google improves Assistant's Voice Match capability

Google is making it easier for Assistant to identify your voice, primarily if you use smart devices in your home with other members of your household. When you setup Assistant now, Voice Match will ask you to say more than just "Ok Google" to help the system identify your voice more accurately. Now, you'll need to say a longer phrase like "Hey Google, play my workout playlist." Voice Match allows you to link up to six people to a single Google Assistant-powered device.

Google Assistant's responsiveness to the "Hey Google" keyboard will soon be tweakable, too. There will be a setting in the Google Home app where you can adjust how sensitive smart speakers and smart displays can be to the hotword. And these settings can be changed at any time and can be finetuned for each device. It'll be initially available in English with more languages to follow.

Source: Google