Volkswagen to pay out $2.1 billion to Canadian customers due to emissions scandal

Volkswagen Canada is about to make reparation to the 105,000 Canadians who bought Volkswagen or Audi vehicles equipped with 2.0-litre diesel engines between 2009 and 2015.

These customers will reportedly receive $5,100 to $8,000 in compensation. Those who decide to sell their vehicles back to Volkswagen Canada Inc. will receive such a payment on top of the value of their car or crossover on Sept. 18, 2015. The payouts will come after March, 2017, when the Ontario Superior Court and the Superior Court of Quebec issue final approval of the settlement.

Source: Globe and Mail

Tim Cook: "Great desktops," are in the roadmap

There's been growing concern that Apple has somewhat neglected its desktops. Sure, the iMac was updated in 2015 with impressive new 5K and 4K variants, but it's been two years since the Mac mini has gotten revised and three long years since the Mac Pro was launched. Well, Apple CEO Tim Cook reassured Apple staff that desktops are very much a part of Apple's roadmap in an internal memo to employees.

Some folks in the media have raised the question about whether we’re committed to desktops. If there’s any doubt about that with our teams, let me be very clear: we have great desktops in our roadmap. Nobody should worry about that.

This is very good news for Apple desktop users who have been waiting patiently for an upgrade path from their current desktops. Like most manufacturers of the PC industry, Apple's likely been held back by Intel, who supplies the processors that power notebooks and desktops and whose latest Kaby Lake processors are trickling out. The Mac is also a shrinking part of Apple's business. Notebooks may be on the upswing but desktops are a tough sell all around. Tim Cook's reassurance that great desktops are coming will help put a lot of speculation to rest.

Source: TechCrunch

Rogers brings Roam Like Home to more wireless consumers

Redd Angelo/Unsplash

Bringing smartphones or other mobile devices while on trips is almost a necessity. But having to pay so much for roaming fees is a bummer. Rogers hopes to help out its clients by expanding its Roam Like Home to more postpaid wireless consumers. This offer is meant to let Canadian subscribers use their wireless plan as they would at home when traveling to the U.S. and over 100 destinations worldwide.

Rogers says almost 800,000 more of its subscribers can avail of this data bucket along with talk and text included in the plan. This charges $5 per day in the US and $10 per day for the other destinations around the world. Customers will only be charged for a maximum of 10 days on each monthly bill or $50 in the U.S. and $100 in eligible international destination. Long distance charges won’t be applied to calls and texts made to local numbers in your destination or back home to Canada. You can find out more about this offering in this link.

Twitter tweaks search results to show ‘relevant’ tweets

Comparison of the old and new Twitter search results

Aside from doing it on its main timeline, Twitter is updating what results you see when you search for something on its service. Instead of going with reverse chronological order, Twitter is basing it off relevance to the user. According to Twitter’s early trials, this approach results in users engaging more with the service. In a blog post, Lisa Huang, senior software engineer for search quality, says the change was made because “the most recent results may not be what the searchers are looking for.” You might get a better grasp of a certain topic from popular tweets or other more relevant tweets than the most recent ones.

Twitter relies on its algorithm and your user behavior to collect this information. It seems to be using roughly the same programming it uses for your main timeline but perhaps with some adjustments since it has to pull information from the social network’s entire database. Now, when you pull up a search on Twitter the different categories (most popular ones, the latest, by people, photos, videos, etc.) will now be algorithmically controlled.

Source: VentureBeat