Sonos Beam smart soundbar now available in Canada

Sonos Beam will be officially available via www.sonos.com and global retail partners starting tomorrow.

We tested this Alexa-powered soundbar and smart speaker and found it to be, "one of the best products that launched this year and is the smartest choice for assistant-enabled speaker buyers who have a need for a soundbar for their TVs, as well as a powerful and expandable smart speaker that also manages the highest-fidelity and best quality audio in the $499.99 price range." Sonos Beam continues to impress as we've used it in tandem with our Vizio TV to watch World Cup and Wimbledon Finals, stream shows from Netflix as well as play the latest games on the Xbox One S and the PlayStation 4.

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Apple celebrates Emoji Day with 70 new emoji across its platforms

As emoji continue to proliferate as one of the preferred ways to communicate, the need for more specific and more inclusive emoji continues to grow. Apple is giving users of iOS and Mac OS 70 new emoji to express themselves better including a range of Canada-specific icons. Some Canadiana-focused Emoji include a lobster, bagel, racoon, hiking boot and cold face.

More than 70 new emoji characters are coming to iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac later this year in a free software update. The new emoji designs, created based on approved characters in Unicode 11.0, include even more hair options to better represent people with red hair, grey hair and curly hair, a new emoji for bald people, and new smiley faces that bring more expression to Messages with a cold face, party face, pleading face and a face with hearts.

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Ontario government shuts down EV and hydrogen vehicle incentive programs

Vehicles purchased on or before July 11 are eligible and still have 60 days to apply.

Ontario's new conservative government has shut down all incentives for electric vehicle charging stations according to the Ministry of Transportation. The timing of this comes just as the sales of EVs and hybrids are at an upswing with more models. The arrival of the more affordable Tesla Model 3 has generated a lot of sales but a lot of those buyers were counting on the provincial incentives to help defer the costs of their vehicles. This is a step back towards the adoption of EVs in Canada.

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Hisense shows off its 100-inch Laser Ultra-HD TV in time for the World Cup semifinals

Hisense has brought their impressive 100-inch Ultra HD Laser TV to Canada and showed it off along with other products that are coming to Canada. This monolithic TV and its companion Laser Projector bring 4K UHD images even in less than ideally lit conditions (like the hotel where the demo was taking place, which was bathed in summer brightness despite the blinds being drawn).

Hisense, who is a sponsor of the 2018 World Cup (but who backed the non-participating Team USA) is looking to seize the moment with a range of compelling TVs priced just under the more popular Korean stalwarts that dominate the high-end TV market. The 100-inch Laser TV is the centrepiece, proof that a new player (albeit, one that's appropriated some of Sharp and Toshiba's TV IP), can make a splash in North America.

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