I’ve been obsessed with the Delta emulator on my iPhone all summer. Playing DS games from my childhood anywhere has been a blast, but what really makes it all the sweeter is how nice Sean Fletcher’s skins look.

I’ve always dreamt of emulators on the iPhone since the design community that uses iOS aligns more with the styles and trends I like. That’s not to say there aren’t great emulators on Android; there are a ton, but I find more designers use Macs and iPhones, so by proxy, iOS apps tend to look nicer. This theory was validated when Delta launched on the App Store with a super clean design from the start, but roughly four months later, one skin pack has risen above them all, and it looks better than my dreams.

Fletcher started by making skins for the Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Colour emulators, but he’s recently branched out to start work on the DS skins. The Game Boy ones are called Delta Pocket, and there are a few varieties depending on how much you’re willing to spend.

The free tier nets you eight skins with solid colours, and four ‘Unlimited Editions’ that include more ambitious colours and cool retro screen filter effects. There are 12 more skins if you’re willing to pay $2. Those offer all kinds of design combos, such as Pokédex, Pikachu and retro handheld themes. There’s also a gold triforce version that looks a lot like the upcoming Switch Lite. This pack is my favourite since it includes the Pokédex and gold versions, plus one called Glacier, which looks like the clear plastic Game Boy Advance I had when I was ten.

The final pack is $5, and it’s only skins that mimic transparent plastic. Like Glacier, these look stunning, and the amount of detail and design work Fletcher must have put into them is jaw-dropping. Not only do they look real, but you can see fake moulding under the transparent plastic, and there is even a Delta logo that looks like it was stamped onto your iPhone’s motherboard.

During June, Fletcher released another pack full of skins to celebrate pride month. These are the same GBA/GBC skin layout, but they feature fun summer colours or rainbow designs. The proceeds from these skins went towards the Rainbow Road charity during June. He also released a limited edition rainbow transparent skin called ‘Dazzle Gleam’ that looks incredible, but it is only available once a year during June, so we’ll have to wait until next summer to get it.

It’s worth pointing out that the Pride skins all feature Pixel grid overlays, so if you don’t want your screen to emulate the actual screen of the Game Boy Advance, these may not be for you. The free version of Delta Pocket has no overlays, but the $2 Plus package includes a few skins with various Game Boy screen emulation overlays if you want to try some out. They look awesome, and very true to life, but I mostly avoid the overlays since they make the games a little darker.

The final skins are called Delta Duo, and they’re meant for the DS emulator. These look really clean in portrait mode, but they’re only meant for AirPlay when you turn them in landscape. These look just as good as the Delta Pocket skins, and I’m personally hoping Fletcher will make some landscape skins with both screens to be used on the go as well. My favourite one is Catchem FE, named after Ash Ketchum from Pokémon. It’s modelled after a Pokédex and has a really unique look with a faceted d-pad in multiple shades of teal.

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But it’s more than just the layout and the colours. When it comes to Fletcher’s designs, it’s the small details the make them a cut above the rest. The texture on the body of the fake controller looks so real you can almost touch it, and the soft shadows casting both from and on the buttons make them appear hyper-realistic. Don’t even get me started on the screens, which have been given soft round corners, and the shading around the fake bezels makes it almost look like there’s a sheet of glass over the displays.

If you want to download some of Fletcher’s skins, some are available for free, while packs can cost anywhere from $2-$5. He’s created a really fun retro-inspired instruction booklet and product catalogue that can help you learn more about skins as well. All of the skins are available on his Gumroad store. 

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Google isn’t the only phonemaker released updates to kick off a new month. Samsung is pushing August updates to the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S24 series only days after the Pixel line was blessed.

In this Samsung August update, neither phone series is getting anything special. As far as we can tell from changelogs, these are simply security patches for the month of August. We know that Samsung is working towards an eventual One UI 7 update with Android 15, but for now, we’re seeing bug fixes. There’s also supposed to be a One UI 6.1.1 update at any moment, even if this isn’t it.

For the Galaxy S24 series, be on the lookout for builds S928USQS3AXFJ (S24 Ultra), S926USQS3AXFJ (S24+), and S921USQS3AXFJ (S24). For the Galaxy S23 series, you should see builds of S918USQS4CXG8 (S23 Ultra), S916USQS4CXG8 (S23+), and S911USQS4CXG8 (S23).

Verizon says in release notes that this update “provides the most up to date Android security patches on your device,” while Samsung suggests “The device is protected with improved security” from it. Nice.

To check for Samsung updates, head into Settings>Software update>Download and install.

// Verizon | Samsung

Cheers TC!

It was a lighter week for telecom news, with only a handful of stories after tons of news last week. Here’s what you need to know:

Pricing and deals

Telus-owned Public Mobile made a few changes this week. It removed its 80GB plans for a more expensive 60GB plan, raised the price of its 50GB plan, then removed the plan entirely for a new $45/65GB option.

Infrastructure

Opensignal’s latest report named Bell’s 5G as the fastest, while Rogers’ network claimed the title for most consistent.

Telus announced it will bring fibre internet to Doig River, B.C.

You can find this week’s rate plan changes here and last week’s telecom roundup here.

MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.

The Google TV Streamer is official as of earlier this week, but because the device hasn’t yet shipped and no one has it in their hands for review, bits of additional info are trickling out to help you decide if you need one. For example, just today, we’re learning about expandable storage for it and which version of Android it runs.

First, we’ve now got confirmation that the Google TV Streamer does indeed support external storage. While Google made it clear that they think the upgrade to 32GB of storage in this new device is a major upgrade over the 8GB in the Chromecast with Google TV (and it is), some power users may need even more space.

Google told 9to5Google that the Google TV Streamer can technically handle external storage through its USB-C port. Unfortunately, there is only a single USB-C port, which is used for power to the device. In order to expand storage and power the Streamer, you would need to use some sort of dongle that would give you an additional port. That will apparently work, too.

And the other part of today’s news drop relates to the version of Android. The Google TV Streamer, according to Mishaal Rahman, runs Android 14. This would be the first Google TV device to do so, which it should be as a Google-made device.

Android 14 for Google TV was announced back in May at Google I/O and is expected to bring big performance improvements, as well as multi-tasking. We hope that refers to Android 14’s picture-in-picture capabilities. There’s more too, which you can read about here.

Google TV Streamer at $99.99 – we decide if we’re buying yet?

Alien is back.

On August 16th, the long-running sci-fi horror series’ latest entry, Alien: Romulus, will open in theatres worldwide. So far, the reaction from those who have seen it early has been overwhelmingly positive.

Directed by Fede Álvarez (2013’s Evil Dead), Romulus follows a group of young space colonists on a derelict space station as they encounter the Xenomorph in between the events of Alien and Aliens. The film stars Cailee Spaeny (Civil War), David Jonsson (Industry), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Isabela Merced (Dora and the Lost City of Gold), Spike Fearn (Tell Me Everything) and Aileen Wu (Skin).

While Romulus is a standalone entry in the Alien series, you might still want to revisit the other movies. With that in mind, we’ve rounded up where you can stream all six Alien films in Canada.

And for good measure, here’s where you can stream the two Alien and Predator crossover movies:

Alien vs. Predator (2004) — Disney+
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) — Disney+

Do you prefer Alien or Aliens? Where do you stand on the much-maligned Alien 3? Are you excited to see Alien: Romulus? Let us know in the comments.

Image credit: Fox

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