Tech Blog

The RAW format is a recurring topic when talking photography with fellow photo enthusiasts, based on their questions and preconceived ideas it's time bust three myths: 1) RAW images are too large, and take up waaayy too much space on my memory card not to speak of my hard drive for no good. 2) RAW is too much trouble. You need to do a ton of post-process work in order to make the image look as good as the JPG images I normally shoot. 3) I don't really see an upside to shooting RAW. At least not one that outweighs the downsides. Read more...

What happened this week? Lots! Google said stuff which was Twittered and Binged. Then Microsoft said stuff, which was also Twittered and Binged. And finally, there was this crazy little thing called E3. Which was... Read more...

I think it's safe to say we all have a love-hate relationship with Microsoft and one fact is almost assured: like it or not Microsoft Office is something we all have to deal with. The question is though--do I have to use Microsoft Office? No ... and yes. Let's step into the world of office suites Read more...

Some may think of the web and blogs and twitter as keys to creating a selfish, narcisstic society. Okay, perhaps if you let it go that far, but really it's just a different way of keeping track of our family history. Web 2.0 has simply created Toddler 2.0. Read more...

If there's one thing about E3 that makes me want to kill myself, it's sitting in the media room—perhaps working on an article or something like that—and listening to a group of other media discussing how they need to get more pictures of "Booth Babes". It's demeaning for everyone involved, and particularly frustrating when (as is sometimes the case) a female member of the group might join in with the casual misogyny. But in the aims of balancing out the imagery of E3, here are some nice shots from the show floor, courtesy of Vincent Diamante's flickr stream. Read more...

I had the rare opportunity to chat with Xbox Canada's Platform Manager, Craig Flannagan, just after the Microsoft E3 press conference to get the scoop on what new products and services will be coming to the Xbox 360 system. Read more...

Twitter is the current 'darling' of the social media circles, featured on Oprah, and some say is in danger of 'jumping the shark' as it gains mainstream usage. Twitter has grown beyond answering the simple question; 'What are you doing?', and become its own communication channel. It's a powerful communications tool and here's how I use it to stay on top of my tech. Read more...

Or, to put it more finely, some Brutal Legend play impressions. Read more...

Jack Tretton’s announcement of Final Fantasy XIV at the Sony Press Event—directly after showing a video for Final Fantasy XIII —probably stands out as one of the most surreal moments of this E3, and a true signifier of just how broken the industry can be, piling sequel upon sequel. What saved it, of course, was the simple hilarity of the audience’s reaction to the title. First shock and confusion; then incredible, fanboyish excitement; only to be followed by complete deflation once it was revealed that the title was a sequel to Final Fantasy XI , and thus "only" a new MMO. Read more...

Pitched as a new LittleBigPlanet by Jack Tretton, Vancouver’s United Front Games are under a lot of pressure to deliver with their urban vinyl toy-themed kart racer ModNation Racer . I sat down with the company’s William Ho and James Grieve for a more in-depth look than we saw yesterday at Sony’s press event. Read more...

I am a Twitterholic. It's true. If you follow me on Twitter you'll notice that I have a tendency to plug the Twitterfon, Tweetdeck and Twitteriffic apps directly to my brain and download the information directly to the web as soon as it passes my synapses. That can be annoying to some, but don't try to block me. It's pointless. I've tried to block Twitterstalkers myself, but the effort is an exercise in futility. Read more...

I realized that while it's all well and good for me to mention the games that I've liked the look of during my "liveblogs" it would be useful for you to get a look at them. So I've selected a some of the trailers and videos and footage that has really stood out for me and linked it all after the jump for your convenience. Read more...

So if there's a lesson I've learned from E3 so far it's that liveblogging without 3G is essentially a fool's errand. When there is wifi, it rarely works, and so usually they don't even bother to try and set one up. But here I am in the Shrine Auditorium for the Sony press event to write it up live, even though I'm just going to have to put it up in one lump anyway. Read more...

Due to the potential that a wifi signal would "interfere with the game demos" there's no way to liveblog from Nintendo's Club Nokia-set Media Briefing, but as before, I'm just going to do it anyway. Read more...

While some of my fellow Future Shop bloggers are living the high-life in Los Angeles attending E3, one of the many things they'll see, either by accident or design, is technology personalized; groovy looking laptops and netbooks. Here's how you can get yours. Read more...

I'm at the Los Angeles Theatre (similarly gorgeous and historic with the Orpheum) waiting for the Ubisoft press conference to start; unlike the past two press conferences, Ubisoft don't even seem to have tried to set up wifi access for journalists. Whatever, I'm going to liveblog it anyway in this Wordpad window, that'll show 'em. [Update: I couldn't find a wifi signal until I got back to my hotel, so here this is, very, very late!] Read more...

During the Dot Com boom creating a "personal homepage" was all the rage. Creating myThis and myThat was just the thing to do and epic battles for getting the most members was something that caused many ulcers in marketing departments. Flashing forward to now, there are still myYahoo and iGoogle start pages, but the shine is off that apple for sure unless you go a different route...and that is the personal news page. Read more...

There have been false confirmations, rabid speculation, constant resurfacing, stern denials, PR slip-ups, uniformed Tweets, misleading teasers and cryptic teasers. After all that, finally Metal Gear Solid is coming to the Xbox 360. However, it's not the Metal Gear Solid game most people would have thought (or hoped) would land on the console. Read more...

Now I'm sitting in the gorgeous, historic Orpheum theatre, waiting for the E3 press conference to start. Just like the earlier Xbox Media Briefing, I can't get the wifi to work so this liveblog isn't exactly going to be very live, unless things change suddenly, I guess. [Update: half an hour later, the connection starts to work. Yay!] Read more...

It's E3 week and I'm sitting in Los Angeles' Galen Center, prepared to liveblog the first press conference - or in Microsoft's parlance, their "media briefing" - but unfortunately I can't get the wifi to work. Alas. Still, hopefully I'll be able to find the signal by the time the briefing is over and can post this in some form! Read more...

While many people are trying to figure out exactly what Cloud Computing is, I'd just rather figure out what Cloud Computing does. And it looks like it'll take me more than one post to do that. I thought I'd start with one of the easiest topics, online file storage, and a very cool application called Dropbox for Mac OSX, Windows and Linux. Read more...

To turn a phrase from Bill Clinton, the impending armageddon of new phone platforms arriving on Canadian shores this month will be settled not on the hardware side, but on the software side. Read more...

When Wii Sports released in November 2006 it was the beginning of a revolution for the gaming industry. Nintendo, having seen generation-over-generation decline in their hardware sales, needed to revitalize their brand if they were going to stay competitive with rivals Microsoft and Sony. So they created the Wii, the world's first console with a motion-control input device that had built-in accelerometers and infrared detection capabilities. Now with over 50 million Wii consoles sold worldwide it's become clear that Nintendo has found it's first runaway success since the original NES. Read more...

The Flip has tongues wagging from coast-to-coast as the most popular pocket video camera has released its full line of products in Canada this week. The camera is great and easy to use, but it comes with so many more extras that just make the entire package sing. How about editing your movies from anywhere and customizing the look of your flip to suit your unique style? Apple could learn a thing or two for it's next line. Read more...