Une abonnement Flobikes, Ça vaut la peine au Canada?

Jusqu’à récemment, les amateurs de cyclisme canadiens disposaient de deux choix de diffusion en continu, GCN+ et Flobikes, pour visionner les courses professionnelles. Puisque GCN+ et Flobikes ne chevauchaient pas la couverture des courses, il fallait s’abonner aux deux services pour regarder toutes les courses majeures du calendrier cycliste au Canada.

En décembre dernier, il a été annoncé que GCN+ et l’application GCN seraient fermés. Apparemment, la décision a été prise par sa société mère, Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD). Il a été annoncé plus tard qu’au moins pour les fans de cyclisme américains, l’ancienne couverture GCN+ serait disponible sur le service de streaming MAX de WBD. Étant donné que MAX n’est pas disponible au Canada, il ne semble pas y avoir d’option disponible pour les Canadiens pour regarder les courses précédemment diffusées par GCN+, comme le Giro d’Italia.

Cliquez ici pour savoir où les anciennes courses GCN+ peuvent être diffusées au Canada en 2024.

How to watch professional cycling in Canada in 2024

Up until only recently, Canadian cycling fans had two streaming choices, GCN+ and Flobikes, to view professional races. Since GCN+ and Flobikes did not overlap coverage of races, you had to subscribe to both services to watch all of the major races during the cycling calendar in Canada.

Last December it was announced that GCN+ and the GCN App would be shutting down. Apparently, the decision was made by its parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD). It was later announced that at least for US cycling fans, former GCN+ coverage will be available on WBD’s MAX streaming service. Since, MAX is not available in Canada, there did not seem to be an option available for Canadians to view the races previously streamed by GCN+, like the Giro d’Italia.

Click here to find out where former GCN+ races can be streamed in Canada in 2024.

Apple settles Class Action lawsuit, Are you eligible for a payout?

If you owned an iPhone 6 or iPhone 7 and downloaded a new version of iOS before December 21, 2016, you may be eligible for a payout of up to $150 per affected phone. The settlement is a result of class action lawsuit brought against Apple in 2018 which alleged the iPhone manufacturer included performance mitigation features in its iOS software update. It was claimed that the updates caused some iPhones to prematurely age, slowdown or shutdown unexpectedly. Although it agreed to the settlement, Apple denies any wrongdoing, saying the software changes were implemented to prevent shutdowns due to aging batteries in the older models. If you think that you had an eligible iPhone, you will have to wait until January 29 for BC’s Supreme Court to approve the settlement. If approved you will have to fill out a claim form which will require you to have the iPhone’s serial number. 

Sources: National Post and CTV News

Turn your legacy Hi-FI Receiver into a music streaming device

I was recently testing a free trial of Apple Music, listening on my iPhone and iPad. After perusing the vast library of contemporary and classical music, I thought that to do justice to the music I should really be listening to it on speakers a bit larger than those on my iOS devices.

My first thought was to purchase some Bluetooth speakers. I was overwhelmed by the variety and numbers of portable speakers that are available. The obvious choice would be to go with Apple since I mostly have iOS devices, but these tend to be a bit pricey. Also, they only connect to iOS devices, and I have non-Apple hardware in my house.

Then I thought, I have some perfectly good speakers already hooked up to an old receiver that I use as a home theatre. In addition to a 5.1 system, I have another set of legacy speakers located in my living room where I could listen to the music. Now, it was only a matter of finding a device to which I could stream music from a phone or tablet. Ideally, the device would be able to connect to the Aux input of my receiver which would then send the music to whatever speakers I choose.

After some searching, I found the WIIM Pro AirPlay. This device does exactly what I want it to do, that is, it turns my stereo into an AirPlay 2 device. It works seamlessly for my Apple devices but would work just as well with Android devices. Once you connect the WiiM Pro to your stereo system through either the Line Out, SPDIF Out or Coax Out, you just power it up and go through a few simple setup steps. Next you install the WiiM Home app on your smart phone or tablet and your device will appear on the home screen. After following the in-app guide you will be ready to start streaming your music.

The device can be used as a Bluetooth device, but for best music quality and connectivity, I would recommend you stream to it using AirPlay. It also supports most of the popular music services, so you can stream directly from your Spotify or Amazon music account. If you have music stored locally on your device or on a Network Attached storage (NAS) device, you can stream directly from these as well.

After using the WiiM Pro for 2 months, I can highly recommend it for its quality of sound, flexibility and ease of use. For more information go to the product site here.

Free trials of Apple Services through your PC Optimum account

If you are a PC Optimum member (Loblaw’s loyalty program) and have an Apple account then you may be eligible for up to 3 months of a free trial on Apple’s services. All you have to do is log on to your PC Optimum account and go to the Dashboard and click on the “Enjoy entertainment and more from Apple”. You will then be brought to a screen that lists the Apple services that are included in the offer; these are: Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Fitness+, Apple Arcade and Apple News+. If you are a new subscriber then you are eligible for a 3 month free trial; even “qualifying returning subscribers” can get a 2 month free trial. Note that this offer can only be claimed once per Apple ID. This is a great deal since Apple normally only offers up to a 1 month free trial.

Apple News+ Alternatives

If you have any Apple services you were probably impacted by the recent price increases announced on October 25, 2023. Services whose prices increased were:
• Apple Arcade: $3 increase to $8.99 per month (no change to annual cost)
• Apple TV+: $4 increase to $12.99 per month ($40 increase to $129.99 per year)
• Apple News+: $4 increase to $16.99 per month (no annual plan available)
(Note these prices are in Canadian dollars)

Along with these, were increases to Apple One bundles for: Individuals ($22.95 from $18.95); Family ($28.95 from $24.95) and Premier ($44.95 from $37.95).

These increases were effective as of October 25, but only take effect for existing subscribers on their next renewal date.

We shouldn’t be surprised by these latest increases as they follow other similar price jumps recently announced by Microsoft, Netflix, and Disney. Now whether these large increases are justified is an issue for discussion elsewhere. What I would like to discuss is cost effective alternatives to Apple News+, which I have been a huge fan of since it came out in March 2019.

To read more, click here.

Disney Plus in Canada (November2023): Higher price but more options

As of November 1, 2023, streaming plans for Disney Plus in Canada will not only be going up in price but they will be getting a little more complicated.

Since December 8, 2022, Canadians had only one option for streaming Disney Plus. The cost was $11.99 per month ($119.99 annually) and included up to 4 simultaneous streams with a video quality of 4K UHD and HDR and up to Dolby Atmos audio quality. Starting on November 1, 2023, the cost of this plan will be increasing to $14.99 per month or $149.99 per year. According to Disney, all existing customers in Canada will remain in this plan by default, it is being renamed “Disney Plus Premium”. This pricing increase is in line with the recently announced increase in the US. Also similarly to the US, Canadians will have an option of choosing a cheaper ad supported plan that will cost $7.99 per month. What is specific to Canadian customers though, is the availability of an additional “Standard” plan. This latter option will be ad free but will allow only 2 simultaneous streams with reduced video and audio quality compared to the “Premium” plan. The video quality will only be up to 1080p (HD quality) and audio quality will be limited to stereo or Dolby 5.1 depending on the content. This may be the ideal plan for those people who are on a budget and are willing to accept the lower video and audio quality and reduced simultaneous streams. The price of this new plan will be $11.99 per month ($119.99 annually). This additional “Standard” plan will also be available in Europe and the UK.

Along with the announcement of these higher prices, Disney also said that it is exploring methods to stop password sharing. It will provide more details about this early in 2024, but it is expected to follow Netflix’s lead and limit its streaming accounts to those people who live in the same household.

What plan will you be choosing starting in November 2023? Or will you be choosing to cancel your subscription to Disney Plus before the new price increase?

Source: Daily Hive

Watching the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in Canada

Even though the men’s Tour de France is over for another year, the racing continues with the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. The women’s version, which comprises 8 stages, started on July 24 and continues until July 31. You can watch all (or most) of the action on FloBikes (see previous post on subscription streaming service). I have been enjoying the race the last couple days, unfortunately other than the first stage, coverage on FloBikes usually only begins about 1-1.5 hours after the official start of the race. This may be because the international feed that FloBikes is re-streaming does not cover the whole race. Although the first hour or so is usually uneventful, I feel that you are missing out on the whole experience of the race if you can only start watching it after it has already begun. Hopefully this will change for future stages.

Watching the Tour de France in Canada

Although, I am not a big sports fan there are a few events that keep me glued to the television; these are the Olympics and the Tour de France. In Canada, both the Summer and Winter Olympics are covered off quite well, at least in the past several years by the CBC on cable and on-line (see previous posts). Watching the Tour de France in Canada over the last few years, though has been a bit more of a challenge.

Previous to 2020, various broadcasters (e.g. TSN, Sportsnet) provided coverage of the Tour de France (TDF) on cable and satellite in Canada. Starting in 2020 though, FloBikes, acquired the sole Canadian streaming rights to the TDF until 2023. So, if you want to watch the Tour de France in Canada at least the next two editions of it, you will have to subscribe to FloBikes.

If you want to find out if I think a subscription to FloBikes is worth it, read on here…

2022 Winter Olympics Coverage in Canada

Although we only just finished the Summer Olympics in August, the Winter Olympics are set to start this week in Beijing, China. The last year that both Olympic games were held within a 12-month period was back in 1992. After this time, the Summer and Winter Olympic games were held in alternating even-numbered years. Given that the coronavirus is still going on, this should serve as a mild distraction from the many other sporting events that have been cancelled within the last 2 years.

The broadcaster with rights to the coverage in Canada is once again the CBC. With the opening ceremonies pre-show set to begin at 6:30 am on Friday February 4, I thought I would provide a bit of information about how to watch your favorite winter sport within Canada. There will be live content on CBC TV as well as on its partner broadcasters Sportsnet and TSN. Streaming will also be available on CBC Gem and the CBC Sports app. In total, CBC announced that it will provide more than 2,400 hours of coverage. Unfortunately there still does not seem to be any 4K available in Canada.

As I noted previously for the Summer Olympics, the best way to customize your viewing experience in Canada is to use CBC Gem. Despite the advertisements, the free version of CBC Gem is probably the best deal out there for high quality television programs, documentaries and movies. The ability to view extensive Olympic coverage of almost every event through this same portal is a bonus. You should also be able to access past events in case you miss the live streaming. Even though the games don’t officially start until Friday February 4, coverage of live events on CBC Gem starts on Wednesday February 2 at 6:55 am with a number of curling games. Check out the program guide to make sure you don’t miss out on any of the action.

Go Canada Go!

Sources: CBC Sports, CBC Gem