Tech Blog

Sony Computer Entertainment Canada celebrated our nation's birthday in style this year by officially launching the Canadian version of the PlayStation Network (PSN) video download store on July 1, 2010. The video service, which has been available in the United States since 2008 and Europe since late 2009, allows PSN members to purchase or rent movies and TV shows straight to their home device. Read more...

Normally I don't make a point of discussing Future Shop deals here on the Tech Blog, mostly because they are, in general, for a short period of time (one week seems about average) and I like to let value offers stand on their own. However, I'm making an exception today because I think this offer I just received in my email inbox is worth mentioning in some detail, especially for parents out there looking to pick up some excellent Nintendo DS titles the whole family can enjoy. Read more...

The announcement of Portal 2 was one of the biggest bits of news earlier this year; not really a surprise, I guess, but still sort of surprising. I wasn't able to make an appointment with Valve this year to check out the E3 demo of Portal 2--they had announced this gala event, then cancelled it in a "funny" way, and most people got sort of confused, including me, and then when I tried to make an appointment it was too late--however, Valve have been pleasant enough to upload videos of the demo online Read more...

That's an old saying we used to joke about when prepping for back country field work. Because if there is a bear chasing you, the last place you want to be is the last person in the line. Same thing goes for passwords. You don't have to have the best most awesome password in the world, you just need one that is hard enough that there are much easier pickings out there. Read more...

One of the most challenging things now when going out to buy a new smartphone is with all the available selection, what do you buy? It's really easy to just go out and buy what's popular or looks good, but is it really the best choice for you? And should you be considering a smartphone versus a dumbphone to start with? Here are a few points to consider when shopping around for your next phone. Read more...

Happy Canada Day! Catherine explains how to make the most of your busy day off. Read more...

The first Flip Ultra pocket video camera started a trend that hasn’t really abated at all over the last few years. Who could argue with a device that only had a few buttons, and used the same one to start and stop a recording? These days, they’ve all gone HD, and this latest effort from Flip is a decent step in that direction.

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The classic Nintendo 64 series Sin and Punishment has been reborn on Nintendo’s unstoppable juggernaut as Sin and Punishment: Star Successor. This new Wii title follows up on the Wii-ware released Sin and Punishment with more of the same deliciously devious shooting action that harcore gamers crave. As a big fan of the original, I can’t wait to try Star Successor. I played through S&P more times that I’d care to admit, mostly because it has judged my skills and found them wanting. The new game promises more “story”, but I wouldn’t worry about that much. I still have no idea what Sin and Punishment was about, I just know that I shot things. A lot.

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Have you tried, in one way or another, to connect your PC or Mac to your HDTV? And if so, how did you find the experience? The reason I ask is because I’ve done so using a few different methods. What I found was that watching movies or shows I downloaded could be great, but actual web browsing wasn’t so good. Mozilla, makers of Firefox, have tried to answer that call.

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Green Zone is an interesting film for Canadians to watch; just like The Hurt Locker before it we’re watching a current world event that we very well could have been part of. Both of those films carry a meaning for Americans that isn’t a reality for most Canadians: this isn’t our war. It’s chilling to think how different things could have been if we had been taken in by the same deception (or mistakes, depending on who you believe). The plot of the film center on Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller, a man tasked with finding the weapons of mass destruction that the American Army was sent to war over. When his unit is sent on yet another fruitless search for WMDs, a local man alerts then to a meeting of high value targets taking place only a few kilometers away. This sets events in motion that lead Miller across Baghdad and against his own comrades in arms in an effort to find the truth. Read more...

Timed to hit with the launch of Microsoft's foray into controller-less motion control gaming, Kinect for Xbox 360, the company has announced a new Xbox LIVE Gold Family Subscription Plan that brings added value for households with two or more players.

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If you’ve seen the last few posts about problems with Apple’s iOS4 operating system upgrade for iPhone and iPod Touch, then you’re aware that many owners of 1st and 2nd generation versions of these devices have been having power and performance problems with the update. Apple’s solution has been to suggest a system restore, and in some cases that has improved things. But not in mine. Read more...

Perhaps you're sick of our E3 coverage--after all, the event did finish over a week ago--but I think now is the best time for us to cap it all off with a final post that rounds up all of the coverage in one place so you can find anything you might have missed. Read more...

Good news: there's a new operating system for the iPhone. Bad news: Catherine is predictably annoyed at one specific feature. Read more...

Hearing the trophy ding for the first level of Transformers: War for Cybertron made me look up at the clock; it was 1am on June 29th.

Two thoughts ran through my head. First: **bleep**, it’s time for bed. Second, well, I’ll just pop into multiplayer briefly to check it out. When I tried to access it I was booted out, and asked to sign into PSN… odd, I thought I was. The screen cleared up my late night confusion: a firmware update was required and PlayStation Plus was upon us. Read more...

For me, and my somewhat aged iPod Touch (2G), iOS4 hasn’t really been as big a benefit as I’d cautiously hoped. Going into the upgrade, I knew that I’d not be able to use a Bluetooth keyboard (darn), multitasking (double-darn) and wallpaper images (actually, this one was a surprise). Read more...

A Professional gamer's insight and experience with Sony's new 3D technology. What really blew my mind... Read more...

Please welcome CatherineOmega to the Tech Blog as our latest guest blogger! She's an accomplished web developer, so knows her way around a complicated desk set-up... as such, she's promised to share with us some of her secrets to staying organized and connecting your technology so that it works with you! Read more...

I gather that Google's Chrome knocked Safari out of third place recently among American Internet users. Okay, fine. I use Chrome to post here, but Safari 5 for everything else day to day. I'm less concerned over what browser is popular versus what browser works for me. In my case I like Safari. Though I will say this: although I don't care if Safari is 3rd or 4th, I would surely love to see IE knocked out of the top spot.

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First off, to be pointedly clear, I don't have an Android phone so I haven't used the app market there. I'm basing my thoughts on what other people have written. Second, I do have an iPad, so I have used the Apple App Store (probably a little too much). Those points aside, after reading John Battelle's short missive on Google needing to clean up their Android Market and the post that he cited (which contents that a lot of the apps for Android are crap, spam, or malware), I wonder if someone can create a middle ground between the iron fist of Apple and laissez faire of Google. Read more...

Fans of the venerated Need for Speed series are about to get another adrenalin boost, this time with sirens attached. With Hot Pursuit it’s all about the thrill of the chase and the desperate drive to escape.

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It may be the 'wild west,' but when it comes to geeking out, Calgary can go just as hard on the web as we go in beer gardens. Coming to town for Stampede? Guess what? There's an app for that - and more. Read more...

Heh, another week, and another set of things that happened. No G20 or G8 coverage here... Read more...

Those who know me well know that I’ll be moving into a new condo in three months from now. But before I went about choosing interiors and picking furniture and figuring out where the TV would go, I looked to the web to give me an opportunity to design and decorate my place in a virtual way.

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