This week, Canadian Facebook and Instagram users can now add music stickers to their profiles and stories, Netflix gives you control over autoplay previews, and the specs for the new Xbox have been detailed. But first, Ring updates security protocols.

Plagued with security problems, Ring rolls out updates for customers, including mandatory 2FA

After reports of hackers seizing control of its security cameras, Ring has decided that two-factor authentication (2FA) is now mandatory for all users.

While 2FA has always been available as an option for those with Ring accounts and devices, now you don’t have a choice. The security protocol, which has you receiving a code emailed or messaged to you when you try to sign in to your account, is the best way to keep your various accounts from being hacked.

Ring has gone even further to remedy things with customers by giving them a choice as to whether they want to opt-out of sharing information with third party service providers.

Music stickers gives Canadians new ways to share tunes on Facebook and Instagram

For a couple of years, users of Facebook and Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) in the U.S. have been able to share their favourite songs. Now, Canadian users can do the same.

You can now add snippets of songs to your Facebook and Instagram stories from a library of music curated by Facebook Canada, and featuring Canadian artists including Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Alessia Cara, Sarah McLachlan, Bryan Adams, the Weakerthans, and even Nickelback.

If the song you’re using has lyrics, the lyrics will show up with the music. And if you record video to go with the music clip, you can choose to use effects that respond to the sound, as I’ve done here.

Back in 2018, Facebook started paying licensing fees to rights holders for music that appears in posts.

• Adding music to your story
• Adding a music sticker to your story

Netflix gives you control over autoplay

Many Netflix users will say this is long overdue. You can now adjust your profile settings to turn off the autoplay feature that the streaming service has always insisted people want.

There are two autoplay settings you can turn on and off: previews and next episodes.

So if you’re just browsing the titles, you don’t suddenly have sound and vision blasting at you. And if you want to watch the complete credits at the end of Stranger Things, you can without the next episode cutting in.

You adjust these settings from within your profile at the Netflix site in a browser.

Hardware specs for Xbox Series X detailed

On Monday, Xbox head Phil Spencer detailed the hardware specs of the new Xbox Series X, coming this holiday season.

The number that everybody’s been talking about since is 12. As in 12 teraflops of “graphical processing unit performance”.

What does that number mean? I honestly can’t tell you, but one of the memes making the rounds of Twitter claims that the IBM ASCI super computer from 20 years ago had a the same processing power, but weighed 106 tons and cost $110 million to build.

What I’m more impressed with is that the Series X will come with a solid-state drive and a variable refresh rate.

Then there’s the promise that with the Series X you’ll be able to play all Xbox One games as well as all Xbox and Xbox 360 games that have been enabled for backwards compatibiity on the Xbox One.

And if you’ve purchased a game on your Xbox One, the version you’ll get on your Series X will be the Series X version of the game.

Microsoft has a plan for rolling out the Xbox Series X. So far, it’s looking amazing.

This week on The Shift with Drex, I talked about the revelation that Canadian government departments are mishandling citizen data, how software was used to push drugs to patients, PlayStation’s new Back Button Attachment, and the new PS4 video game, Dreams.

This week, a new peripheral for your PS4 controller and the breathtaking Dreams. But first, scary stuff from the Canadian government and a deal with the devil in the pharmaceutical world.

Government of Canada departments and agencies mishandling citizen data

A response to a request for information from the federal government that was tabled by a Conservative MP last month has revealed that tens of thousands of Canadians were impacted by various security breaches at government departments.

As reported by the CBC, a wide range of agencies were affected, including the CRA, which reported the most breaches, Health Canada, and even the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Breaches included everything from hacks, to lost or stolen equipment, to misaddressed emails.

Major ethics breach revealed as deal between software company and opioid manufacturer brought to light

A software application that was reportedly paid for by Purdue Pharma, which manufactures Oxycontin, was responsible for pushing opioids on people whose doctors were using the app to store patient records.

Founded in 2005, Practice Fusion built a business on providing free electronic health records and generating revenue from advertisements.

The company, which has a deferred prosecution agreement, admitted to prompting doctors to prescribe opioids.

U.S. attorneys allege that Practice Fusion had similar deals with 14 pharmaceutical companies.

Playstation releases new peripheral to make controllers more customizable

A new, $40 peripheral adds unprecedented customization options to the Playstation DualShock 4 wireless controller.

The Back Button Attachment snaps easily onto your controller and gives you an additional two buttons that can be configured to almost any actions.

You can remap those buttons without having to go into a settings screen, too, and you can save up to three profiles on the attachment so it’s easier to move between your favourite games.

What’s most important, though, is that clipping the Back Button onto your controller doesn’t change the comfort or control of the DualShock 4. Extra control, all the comfort.

Dreams come true in new game experience from Media Molecule and Playstation

Dreams is utterly unique and absolutely impossible to characterize. While it’s being marketed as a game that you can play – and it certainly is that – the new PS4 title is much more.

It’s more than just a game because Media Molecule, which is responsible for the Little Big Planet games, has effectively packaged up the software that it used to create Dreams, and given it to us.

The idea is that using Dreams you can create whatever you can imagine. Typical games or videos or other, alternative media experiences. All are possible here. And after you’ve created something, you can share it with the world.

Because it’s been in a beta release for over a year, there are lots of experiences that have already been created and made available in the Dreams libraries. So if you just want to play different game experiences, you can.

But if you want to be a dreamer, a creator, it’s never been easier.

And that’s really where there’s magic in Dreams.

Creating and releasing a game engine is one thing. Being able to teach and train average people from around the world, from different cultures and with different languages and sensibilities, is the hard part.

That’s exactly where Media Molecule has succeeded. With step-by-step tutorials that are fun to play, Dreams has you learning the tool set that you can use to create without you even realizing that’s what’s going on.

Whether you choose to become a creator or not is entirely up to you. There will be lots of people who are content to play the things made by others. And that’s okay.

If you want to experiment and explore. If you want to turn your dreams into something you can play, you can do that to.

It doesn’t matter if Dreams is a game or not. It exists to be what we want it to be.

This week on The Shift with Drex, I talked about the big announcements coming out of Samsung’s Unpacked 2020 event including the Galaxy S20 lineup and the Galaxy Z Flip, the worst data breaches of 2019, LG adding Apple TV to its televisions, and playing Xbox One games on your Android device.

This week, the worst data breaches of 2019, Apple TV comes to LG screens, and playing Xbox One games on your Android device. But first, new flagship smartphones from Samsung.

Samsung Unpacked 2020 reveals host of new smartphones

February typically belongs to Samsung, and 2020 is no exception. The tech company held a press event in San Francisco yesterday at which it revealed its latest premium smarphones and a new foldable mobile.

Not everything was a surprise, as Samsung had already teased its new Z Flip during the Super Bowl. Nilay Patel captured the commercial and posted it:

Samsung just showed off the entire Z Flip during its Oscars ad. Small print says screen crease is normal, heh pic.twitter.com/uBesJ0FonT

— nilay patel (@reckless) February 10, 2020

The new flagship handset, the Galaxy S20, comes in three models that are now available for preorder: Galaxy S20 5G, Galaxy S20+ 5G, and Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G.

Aside from the physical size of the devices (6.2-inch, 6.7-inch, and 6.9-inch respectively), they are similar. Each version has an OLED screen with HDR and a refresh rate of 120 Hz, 128 GB of storage (expandable with microSD) and 12 GB of RAM. They all support 5G, the new mobile connectivity that may start rolling out in limited regions later this year.

But while the S20 and S20 Plus have the same camera set-up, the Ultra model sports “Space Zoom” which combines optical and digital zoom to create a 100x zoom capability.

The various configurations of the Galaxy S20 will ship on March 6, priced at $1,320 for the S20, $1,580 and $1,880 for the S20+, and $1,850 and $2,110 for the S20 Ultra.

Foldable smartphone take 2

In addition to the trio of S20 handsets, Samsung also provided more details about the Galaxy Z Flip, which is a new foldable smartphone.

This is, of course, just a couple of months after the release of the Galaxy Fold, which was delayed for months after a failed initial release.

The Galaxy Z Flip is a very different device, folding across the horizontal rather than the vertical. It’s 6.7-inches when flat, and about half that when folded. The device makes use of “bendable Ultra Thin Glass”, not plastic.

The Galaxy Z Flip handset, which will be available “in limited quantities” next Friday, will cost $1,820.

Worst data breaches of 2019 listed

Virtual private network (VPN) provider, NordVPN, collected details on the biggest data breaches of 2019.

Among them were some I knew about, like the release of biometric data from the Biostar database, the Capital One hack, and the unprotected Facebook server.

I did not know about the hack on Zynga, the developer of Words with Friends and other Facebook games.

LG adds Apple TV to televisions

While video streaming devices are cheaper and easier to use than ever, if you’re only using the standard subscription services you don’t really need them because so many services are built into television set operating systems these days.

At CES in January, LG announced that all new smart TVs would come with the Apple TV app. This month, that same functionality is coming to LG smart TVs from 2019.

Not only can you use the Apple TV app and subscribe to Apple TV+ on your compatible LG TV, but you can also use AirPlay 2 to cast media from your iOS device.

LG expects to make the same functionality available to TVs sold in 2018 soon through a firmware update.

You can now play your Xbox One games on your Android device

If you’re looking at upgrading your Samsung Galaxy handset – the screens on the S20 series look amazing – then you’ll also be interested to know that you can play games from your Xbox One on your Android smartphone or tablet.

The Xbox Console Streaming service has been in preview mode since October, but while it was only available to Xbox Insiders in the U.S. and UK, it’s now open to gamers in Canada and more than 40 other countries.

Your mobile device needs to be running Android 6.0 or later and have Bluetooth 4.0 and you need to have an Xbox One wireless controller with Bluetooth, which you’ll use to play the game. There’s even a clip that you can attach to your controller that will hold your smartphone for a measly $20.

Your Xbox One will need a high-speed connection to the Internet, because what you’re effectively doing is using it as a server to deliver your game to you on your mobile device.

This means that you can play any Xbox One game that you’ve got running on your console.