This week, free movies from the Banff International Film Festival, free Radiohead, free Onward for Disney+ subscribers, Half-Life: Alyx, and Xbox One game Ori and the Will of the Wisps. But first, Zoom may not be the best video conferencing solution for you.

How to select the right video conferencing solution for what you need to do

There’s been a lot of people talking about and using Zoom to have online cocktail hour with friends or virtual family reunions, but in the past couple of weeks, the conferencing software’s limitations have really been brought to light.

First it was a revelation that Zoom’s iOS app appears to share information with Facebook, according to research conducted by Motherboard.

That has led to a class action lawsuit that was filed on Monday.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation also has some concerns about the observational tools available to Zoom meeting administrators. As in they can see who’s paying attention and who’s not and they can access recordings and transcripts even if attendees didn’t explicitly grant permission to be recorded.

Motherboard also reported that people who were signing up for Zoom accounts using the same email suffix were getting grouped as a company which meant their personal details were shared with everyone else in the “company”.

All those things are Zoom’s to fix, and you can bet they are scrambling to update their software and processes.

The fact that people have been showing up to publicly-accessible Zoom events in the nude or showing porn in the background is a problem that only users of the service can control.

And you can control these things if you know how to use the Zoom settings.

But Zoom is not the only option out there for video chatting with friends and family.

Apple users are better off using FaceTime, which allows multiple people to chat at once.

And Google Hangouts is free and easy to use, too. Keep in mind that Google also collects information from users.

My kids have been using Houseparty to keep in touch with their friends. The service, recently purchased by Epic Games (the Fortnite developers), includes fun games that they can play together, and if you lock down the privacy so they can only chat with people you add, it’s a decent option for kids.

A newer, indie option is Whereby, which allows you to have a true video conference with up to four people without any of your guests having to create accounts, or logins, or download software. You simply send them a link and they can access your meeting in any modern browser. And you can lock the room to keep out any undesirables that might end up with the URL.

Free movies from the Banff Mountain Film Festival

Every tear, the notable Banff Mountain Film Festival takes a number of its films on tour. The tour had already begun, but COVID-19 has led to the cancellation of the rest of the tour.

To make up for things, organizers have released a list of films, curated by Lianne Caron, that have been part of the Festival in years past.

The list of films was turned into helpful links by Enock Glidden.

Free Radiohead music, videos, and concert films

Radiohead has unveiled the Public Library, where you can enjoy all sorts of artifacts that stretch back to the band’s first album, Pablo Honey, in 1993.

There are also full-length films including the band’s performance at Lollapalooza in 2016, the two-hour set at Bonnaroo in 2012, and the Best Kept Secret Festival appearance from 2017

Disney+ gets Onward early

Last week, Disney and Pixar released Onward for purchase on digital and this week we get word that the streaming platform Disney+ is getting the animated film weeks earlier than originally planned.

Half-Life: Alyx is why you want to get a VR rig

Released in 1998, Half-Life was the first game published by Valve, which has since become a software and hardware stalwart, proprietors of the Steam engine for the sale and delivery of computer games, and the HTC Vive and Valve Index virtual reality platforms.

Half-Life: Alyx, which is set between the events of that first game and 2004’s Half-Life 2, is a pure VR experience, and boy-oh-boy does it make me want to shell out for a new computer and a Valve Index headset. The full kit, which comes with motion sensing equipment, controllers, and a headset, is $1,319.

And you need a pretty slick Windows box to use it.

But it comes with a copy of Half-Life: Alyx, and VR is the only way you’re going to play this game.

Here’s the first few minutes to whet your appetite.

Action platformer Ori and the Will of the Wisps soothes the soul

Ori is a forest spirt we first met in 2015, when Moon Studios brought to the Xbox One a delightful side-scrolling platformer. Ori is back, and in Will of the Wisps explores a new, wonderous natural world that is plagued with danger and darkness.

The art in this game is lovely, conveying a colourful, hand-drawn style. The world is expansive, and you navigate it all by running and jumping, avoiding pitfalls and smacking enemies with various attacks, growing more powerful along the way. One of the best additions is the ability to change out skills on the fly, so you can have Ori double jumping when you need to, then being able to stick to surfaces later on.

The narrative soars with emotion, evoking sadness and melancholy in one moment, and jubliance and triumph the next.

There are plenty of secrets to discover in the undergrowth, and corruption to overcome. It’s up to Ori to save the forest, and the creatures living therein.