Tech Blog

Yeah HDR shots on the iPhone 4 are cool. I certainly have been having fun with them on my phone, but alas and alack if you have a 3G or 3GS you can't tap into this power (without extra apps).

Or maybe you can.

Stop me if you've seen this...

Visceral Games is now showing off some of the new multiplayer offerings for Dead Space 2 (via Game Trailers TV ), and it's not your usual Death Match. You're still in mortal danger - the game is called Dead Space - but not from other human beings.

There was no mistaking the big push that Disney was making this year for Tron Legacy, the long awaited sequel to the classic sci-fi film.  The Tron Legacy booth was the largest on the show floor, complete with a 20 foot tall Interceptor.

Beside the usually merchandise that goes along with modern sci-fi movie, the video game Tron Evolution was on the floor and playable on multiple consoles...

My favourite DS series is back next week, with a new iteration. You’ll find Professor Layton and the Unwound Future rolling out to stores on September 12. I received a charming letter from the Professor earlier today.

You go out, you buy some tech, and it works. Excellent. But haven't you ever wanted it to do more? For example, your in-home WiFi is kinda weak -- router is OK, but you've needed more range out of it to reach the other end of your house. That's a hack, waiting to happen. There's more, and they're easy, and 'mostly' safe Though they can carry risks...

A large portion of Sony’s cavernous PAX playground was carved out for Empire City’s own hero: Cole MacGrath. After saving Empire City, Cole set out for New Marais (a stand-in for New Orleans) after a nearly fatal battle with The Beast, one of the central plot points of the first game.

Sucker Punch has amped everything up for the second time around, with incredible new powers, and gameplay that flows much more smoothly. While things were slick the first time around, Cole is even more limber in inFamous 2 , making it even more of a joy to play.

Seesmic announced tonight a major upgrade to their Seesmic desktop app, now with yummy Mac goodness, that could very well set the bar for how new Twitter apps will be judged. The major development (and it's not that it runs on the newest version of Silverlight) is that Seesmic now supports a plugin architecture, much like our favourite browsers, that will allow for tremendous flexibility and expansion. This, I think, is what will set Seesmic apart from all other apps and will likely force other apps like Hoosuite and TweetDeck to either offer more options or plugins of their own.

Oh sure we know that the number of bars we see on our phones has a numerical value behind it (even if Apple had to fix how they calculate it), but have you ever seen the number? If you have an iPhone running iOS 4.1 you can, again. Originally the iPhone 2G could be put into what is called Field Test mode by dialing a special sequence, but that function was "lost" or disabled along the way to iOS 4.1, but now it's back and here's how you do it.

When the iPhone 4 launched there were murmurs of people saying that the camera on the new iPhone was so good that they could leave their point-n-shoot at home. I thought that I really needed to try this out so on my recent trip to Whistler I did just that, sorta. I had intended to do a more head-to-head comparison for you, but what happened in reality is a lot closer to reality: the battery in my point-n-shoot died and all I had to use was my iPhone. The result? Well, some of what you'd expect and some of what you might not.

As I last mentioned, I just moved apartments, and it was a pretty good way to test the customer service of Canada's big two, Bell and Rogers, when it comes to making such a natural (and done a bazillion times a year) interaction with a customer. I've already covered Bell's absolutely dire performance (see the comments thread for exciting updates!) and with the only other serious competitor Rogers, how went that?

Pentax has announced it's latest mid-level DSLR, the K-r . Looking to fill in a gap between the existing K-x and flagship K-7 model, it's a compact powerhouse that's packed with some features that DSLR fans are looking for in this mid-range model.

PlayStation Move at PAX was an incredibly fun experience; four stations were set up, letting gamers experience a variety of Move gameplay types, and it absolutely cemented Move for me as a must-buy when it hits the market before the end of the month.

Four games were playable: Heavy Rain, The Fight, Sports Champion, and The Shoot. Heavy Rain was the first game I tried; the controls were incredibly responsive, and other than accidentally making a character take a rather explicit shower on a gaming convention show floor, it was a pretty cool experience. Being able to get into the action of the dramatic fight scenes of Heavy Rain added a layer of interaction that I had never felt before. Move is definitely a great addition to Heavy Rain.

When Netflix announced that it was bringing its streaming service to Canada this fall, some pundits were citing it as the death knell for Blockbuster and other video rental stores. There were reports two weeks ago that Blockbuster was prepared to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S., effectively ending any dominance the company once had in the video rental market.

Occasionally you stumble across a cool tool or two that really make you wonder why you'd not seen them before.

In my case it was with the Myna audio editing software that's part of the Aviary suite. It's cool, it works well, it's online, and it's free!

I've been away for a while. Miss me? maybe not! But I've been away because I've been moving apartments, and as pretty much everyone has moved homes at some point in their lives, I imagine you can relate to just how difficult it is. So whatever companies can do to make things easier is much appreciated. For example, there's the task of moving over your internet, phone, TV service, and so on. How easy do the big two, Bell and Rogers, make it?

Everyone expected StarCraft II to sell well, but three million copies in the first month proves that Blizzard's real-time strategy game still has lots of momentum.

It's been over a decade, and I find myself in almost the same position I did over ten years ago: still waiting for Duke Nukem Forever. Unlike any other day in the last ten years, however, today is the day when I'll actually get to see-and play-the game dubbed vaporware of the decade. Even as I sit on the cold concrete of the Washington Convention Center I can't help but feel a thrill of unchecked excitement; even though the air smells slightly of unwashed gamers and it feels like this may bring about Ragnarok, the possibility of playing Duke Nukem Forever makes it worth it.

The line stretches onwards ahead of me. I'm not sure what time I would have to rouse myself to be at the front of this line. Like an old god awakening it begins to shift. I haven't long to wait now.

Heading into the hall it becomes clear that the wait will go on for the better part of the day. Hours pass. Nations rise and fall. The door finally opens; I am greeted by Randy Pitchford of Gearbox. This is unreal.

Last year we looked at the explosive growth of the Canadian video game industry , but what about our neighbours to the south?  According to a recent report from Economists Incorporated it appears the industry there is growing at much higher pace than the rest of the U.S. economy.

I thought I recognized some of the guys at the TRON booth at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle; learning that Vancouver's own Propaganda Games was working on the title confirmed it. The last time I had seen many of the face here, Propaganda was winding down production of Turok and getting ready to launch it. While Turok's reception was lukewarm, hopes at Propaganda appear to be high for TRON: Evolution. It's clear that the studio thinks it has a hit on its hands.

TRON: Evolution has a lot to live up to. The cult classic film from the early eighties earned a huge following for its groundbreaking (and utterly unused after the fact) use of rotoscoping. Starring Bruce Boxleitner, David Warburton, and Jeff Bridges, TRON captured the imaginations of young gamers around the world. The concept of a world within computer networks has been revisited since TRON, but never with the style or the gravitas of that film.

If you were looking for my weekly ‘This is the week that was’ post, please accept my apologies -- I was camping in the wilds of central Alberta with nary a cell tower within range. Which means I was offline for 3 days.

Which was actually kind of cool and refreshing because it ties in quite nicely to the subject this post...

Apple loves to make things obsolete.  With each new iPod design, the others are instantly deemed antique.  With the new iOS4 released this year, the same was done to the iPhone 3G.  Thankfully, it appears Apple has saved those of us with the ancient hardware.  The iOS4.1 update is due this week and all will be right in the world.

In my final interview at Microsoft’s X’10 event in Toronto, I talk with Design Director Josh Atkins of Lionhead Studios about what to expect in Fable III, and the importance of storytelling in video games, from the writing to the voice talent.

One of the goals was to engage the player enough to actually put down the controller and think about the moral decisions they make.

“For us, the idea of a choice, it really has to make you care.  It can’t just be so good/evil.  It’s got to be something that pulls  at you a lot more.”

Readying for the busy holiday gaming season, Microsoft has revealed two brand new controllers in recent weeks that are set to release this fall for the Xbox 360.

Everybody loves Disney songs, we just can't help it.  It's like we were all born with these classic and contemporary tunes ingrained into our minds and every time they play it's impossible to not sing in your head or hum along.  That's why I'm surprised it took Disney so long to release a karaoke game that includes many of our favourite Disney hits in one place, especially given that sing-along games have been around, or at least popularized, since 2003's Karaoke Revolution by Konami.  Well, Disney Sing It: Family Hits has finally arrived, and if you're a PlayStation 3 or Wii owner you're in for quite the Disney musical treat.