Tech Blog

So you get your first DSLR, you have your kit lens and you're ready to take some pro-looking shots of your family members, pets, things sitting around... etc. Then what happens? You point the SLR in someone's face hold down the shutter button and that built-in flash pops up to assist with brightening up the subject. The picture is eventually taken 2 seconds after you were hoping and now you have a photo of your aunt and uncle with bright, awfully lit faces, eyelids half-open and you start asking yourself... but this is a DSLR! Why do these photos look like I took it with my point and shoot?

Dana Sissons, Public Relations Manager for EA, talks to me about the latest version of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, developed by Criterion Games, makers of the Burnout series and set in the fictional Seacrest County, based on the California coastline. This offers up a variety of racing environments, with the four major variants being forests, mountains, desert and ocean.

Critics of Apple products have long pointed to the "Apple Tax" as a crux of their arguements against the products.  Apple's gadgetry is consistently higher priced that similar products with similar horsepower.  Fanboys respond by touting the company's esthetic qualities and point to the high profit margins that continously propel the stock<br><br>

Lovers of Apple products understand there is an Apple tax to be paid.  If you want the elegance of a BMW or a Mercedes, you're willing to pay a premium for the privelege - same with Apple products.  The problem comes when the Apple tax is extended to an all out money grab with an off base currency conversion.

Let's be honest here: if you have a basic understanding of the filmmaking technique known as machinima, you probably eat, sleep and breathe video games.

Easily the most popular machimina ever created is Rooster Teeth Productions' Red vs. Blue, a web series which debuted in 2003 using the game engine from Bungie Studio's Halo: Combat Evolve.  Rooster Teeth has gone all out with their latest DVD release for the series, Red vs Blue – The Blood Gulch Chronicles: The First Five Seasons.

Earlier today Apple unveiled the new look of the iPod product line, starting with the tiny Shuffle and ending with a slimmer and more powerful iPod Touch. New form factors, new hardware and new capabilities were evident across the product line, and a few of the iPredictions turned out to be pretty close to accurate

For those of you eagerly awaiting the BlackBerry Torch in Canada, both Telus, Rogers and Bell have officially announced September 24th as the release date for this device. 

While the buzz earlier this week was all speculation about hardware changes and improvements, today Steve Jobs and Apple snuck in a potentially great enhancement to the iTunes ecosphere -- a little thing called Ping.

Apple likes to control the message and they did that with today's unveiling of the upgrade to iOS4 and new iPods in not only a press event in Cupertino, but one that was for the first time streamed to the internets, they took another new step by streaming their own announcement at Apple.com.

The new EA Sports NHL game for the Wii comes with a stick and features Gretzky where he belongs, in blue and orange.

I have two dogs, miniature Daschunds. They’re about 6 inches tall at the shoulder and about 14 inches longs. Weiner dogs. Doxies.

I now have a scanner, and it’s a Doxie too! It’s about 2 inches tall, and about 10 inches long. Appropriately named. But the name doesn’t do justice to the scanner itself. The Doxie is one cool and powerful little scanner in a very tiny package.

Anyone who tends to record audio or video that requires transcription later on (being a journalist, I know this all too well), likely knows how tedious and repetitive the experience can be. While not the automated solution I was hoping for, I won’t argue with free software that helps me do the job faster and with more precision.

One of the highlights of X’10 was getting a chance to go “hands on” with Microsoft’s controller-free controller Kinect.  The various mini games in Kinect are actually quite the workout, and though there is lag, it didn’t seem to affect gameplay.

We're ending off August the right way with collectors' editions announced for two of the most anticipated games this holiday season.  Disney Interaction Studios have revealed their Collectors' Edition for the Wii-exclusive Disney Epic Mickey, while Capcom showed off their glitzy Dead Rising 2 High Stakes Edition.

As a recent student, I'll be honest, I had no clue what software I needed until it was often too late.  But the right software can make all the difference and make your life so much easier.  Here are some suggestions on what software you will want to help ensure your success.  And make sure you check out the end of this post as there are some great tips on how you can get this software at prices that won't break your bank.

It's no secret that Ontario is a growing hotbed for video game development, with investment in the province heating up in recent years.  Building on Ontario's growing prominence in the global games industry, Interactive Ontario will soon be presenting their flagship 2010 IN Conference, a cross-platform, multi-stream conference where vetrans of the interactive industry from around the world come to share their knowledge, and showcase their cutting edge technologies.  This year's event will be taking place from September 12-14 at the Carlu in Toronto.