Microsoft announced Windows 11 today. I have a completely separate writeup about that linked below. After that, there are some of the other stories I’ve found interesting over the last couple days.
Microsoft Announces Windows 11
My writeup on the Windows 11 announcement from Microsoft today.
https://www.thewunderbar.net/blog/2021/6/24/microsoft-announces-windows-11
New Canadian Government Bill Aims to Define and Combat Online Hate Speech
At the very end of the Canadian Parliament’s spring sitting, the Justice Minister introduced a bill that would amend the Human Rights Act to clearly define acts of online hate speech, and put committing an offence into the criminal code.
Now, this bill was introduced during the last day of sitting, and it is likely there will be an election this fall meaning this bill will die, and need to be re-introduced again by a future government. However, this is an important bill that I hope comes back in some form in the future.
Telus Launches PureFibre X in Calgary
Telus has launched an upgrade to its fibre internet offerings in Calgary, with a rollout to other communities coming in the future. PureFibre X has an advertised speed of 2500 megabit per second download and upload speeds. The plan includes unlimited data for 24 months if you sign up for a 2 year contract (which, conveniently, is 24 months). The Telus system also comes with a wifi 6 system, likely because most people won’t have networking in their homes capable of using that kind of speed. I know I don’t.
Competition is good. Telus offers faster download speeds than Shaw, and has an almost laughable upload speed advantage. Shaw’s maximum upload speed is 100 megabit on their 1500 megabit plan, where Telus offers equal upload and download speeds across the board. I do not like how Telus ties unlimited data to signing a contract however. With Shaw, data is unlimited on most of their plans. I do not think there should be limited data on any home internet plans, and Shaw does slightly better there.
Telus PureFibre X is now available to customers in Calgary and is priced at $175/month.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/06/24/telus-purefibre-x-calgary-2-billion-investment/
Google Delays New Ad Tracking Model to 2023
Google previously announced a plan to phase out 3rd party browser cookies in Chrome and replace them with a new tracking technology called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). Where 3rd party cookies could track individual users to serve personalized ads, FLoC aimed to lump similar users into groups to provide less individual tracking. Facing significant backlash from advertisers, Google has now announced they are delaing the change from 3rd party cookies to FLoC to some time in 2023.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/06/google-delays-floc-rollout-until-2023/
Google Brings News Showcase to Canada
Google’s News Showcase system that it introduced in France, The UK, and Australia is expanding to Canada with the company signing 8 News organizations to the program. Google News Showcase wil see Google pay news organizations for “high quality journalism.” This allows Google News to show content from publishers that would otherwise be behind a paywall on their websites. The publishers signing on to the agreement are Black Press Media, Glacier Media, The Globe and Mail, Métro Média, Narcity Media, SaltWire Network, Village Media and Winnipeg Free Press.
Google is also investing in Canadian journalism via Google News. Google says it aims to provide training to 5,000 journalists and journalism students in Canada on “digital skills” for creating news content online. The company says that it has already provided such training to 1,000 people in Canada, and this represents a 5x increase over the next 3 years.
https://blog.google/products/news/expanding-support-of-news-in-canada/