This week, Google and Samsung are partnering on software for smartwatches, Google Earth takes us back in time, and MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries expands out in the world. But first, North Shore Rescue’s Survive Your Own Adventure.

North Shore Rescue’s “Survive Your Own Adventure” video demonstrates the dangers of not preparing

While we’ve been having spring- and summer-like weather here in Vancouver in the past few weeks, there’s still plenty of snow in the mountains.

North Shore Rescue has always advocated for people planning and preparing to be in the back country or even on the most basic of hikes. Because you never know what’s going to happen.

The organization has produced a choose your own adventure video called, Survive Your Own Adventure that shows you from a first-person perspective the consequences of decisions you make while hiking the North Shore of metro Vancouver.

While the specific storylines shown in the video take place in the trails of the North Shore, the lessons you can learn are universal.

North Shore Rescue insists that you:

• Trip plan
• Train
• Take the essentials: No matter how simple your hike may be, pack these 10 things

Google and Samsung partner up for wearable tech

At the Google I/O conference last week, one of the interesting announcements was about a new partnership between Google and Samsung on software for connected watches.

The two companies are merging Wear OS (Google) and Tizen (Samsung) to create a unified Android platform for smartwatches.

We’re combining the best of wearosbygoogle</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/SamsungMobile?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">SamsungMobile Tizen into a unified wearable platform. Apps will start faster, battery life will be longer and you'll have more choice than ever before, from devices to apps and watch faces. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/vj2aYZD81x

— Google (@Google) May 18, 2021

The new operating system will also incorporate some fitness tracking features from Fitbit (Google acquired the fitness tracking device company earlier this year).

This could be the best of both worlds: Google gets the connected watch it hasn’t been able to build itself, and Samsung’s Galaxy Watch plays better with Android devices that aren’t made by Samsung.

Future Samsung Galaxy Watches will run the new software, as will some Fitbit devices.

You can watch the entire keynote from Google I/O 2021 below.

Google Earth can now take you back in time

Google Earth, which provides us with access to a three-dimensional view of our planet by collecting and layering satellite images and GIS data, has been updated.

Timelapse was created from 24 million satellite photos from the past 37 years, and adds a dimension to the 3-D experience by showing us how the surface of our planet has changed over time.

This is an incredible tool for students and teachers, researchers, and anyone else who has an interest in seeing patterns in how the Earth has been changing, both because of us and in spite of us.

Check out this video showing changes to the planet’s oceans since 1984, including changes to the Columbia Glacier in Alaska, a tidewater glacier which flows into Prince William Sound in the Gulf of Alaska.

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries expansion releasing, game launching on Xbox consoles

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries expands in three ways this week.

The game, developed in Vancouver by Piranha Games, was first released for Windows computers in 2019 as an exclusive to the Epic Games Store, and is launching on other storefronts including Steam and GOG.

It’s also being released on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S and is part of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.

If that wasn’t enough, a new expansion, Heroes of the Inner Sphere, is being added to the experience.

In the MechWarrior games, you pilot BattleMechs, heavily armed and armoured bipedal weapon systems. The video game franchise spun out of a tabletop role-playing game, with the first video game releasing in 1989 for MS-DOS and the Apple Macintosh.

Mercenaries is a single player narrative game, with you seeing through the cockpit window of your mech (or in third person, if you prefer). You need to manage your machine as much as you need to smash and crash things, repairing and replacing damaged parts, selecting the proper load out for the mission at hand.

“Heroes of the Inner Sphere” adds new quests and missions to the game and introduces new mechs, with updates to equipment and weapons.