This week, Apple’s HomePod wireless speaker comes to Canada, Papua New Guinea talks about banning Facebook, BMO and Simplii customer data stolen, Amazon saves The Expanse.

HomePods land in Canada on June 18, iOS update available now

Apple’s wireless speaker, HomePod, is releasing in Canada on June 18. The device is being launched in France and Germany on the same day.

The speaker has been praised for delivering quality sound, and with the iOS 11.4 update Apple has addressed a big criticisms, that of being able to deliver multi-room audio.

AirPlay 2, which is enabled by the mobile operating system update, also turns a pair of HomePod speakers, which are available in black and white, into a stereo pair.

A single HomePod will cost you Cdn$449.

Papua New Guinea wonders if Facebook ban will clean out fakes

Island nation Papua New Guinea media organization Post-Courier reported yesterday that the country’s government is considering a month-long “shutdown” of Facebook.

The idea is to “identify users that hide behind fake accounts, users that upload pornographic images, users that post false and misleading information on Facebook to be filtered and removed” according to Communications Minister Sam Basil.

Estimates on internet penetration in the country have only 10 percent of the population with access. Some 50 percent of citizens have mobile phones, though, through which they use social media

Today, Basil said that he had not schedule the Facebook ban, but was considering it, and would not rule out an indefinate ban

Facebook is currently banned in China.

Personal info from Canadian banks being held for ransom

Some 90,0000 customers of the Bank of Montreal and CIBC’s Simplii Financial found out this week that their personal and account information had been stolen by hackers, and held for a million-dollar ransom.

Global reported on three people who claimed to have had money transferred out of their Simplii accounts.

Hackers reportedly contacted media with sample data, and CBC verified that information on two Canadians was accurate.

The culprits claimed that login systems used by the two banks were poorly designed, which led to the breach.

If you think you may be affected, monitor your accounts daily for illicit activity. Both institutions have said that affected customers will be fully reimbursed.

And while this hack has nothing to do with your password, you should remember the rules of passwords:

• Use complex passwords
• Change them regularly
• Don’t write them down

Amazon saves The Expanse television show

After being cancelled by SyFy after three seasons, the television show, The Expanse, has been picked up by Amazon for its Prime service.

Jeff Bezos confirmed the deal while appearing at a National Space Society event in Los Angeles.

In Canada, the show was broadcast on Space. There’s been no announcement from Alcon Television Group, which finances and produces the series, on licensing deals outside the U.S.

Here’s the trailer for Season 3, which concludes on June 27.

Last night, on The Shift with Drex, we talked about Channel Master’s new indoor TV antenna, writer Josh Friedman’s archive of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, an ARG at the University of Chicago, and an augmented reality experience of David Bowie’s creativity.

This week, another reason to praise the Internet as writer Josh Friedman posts some of his Terminator work, how incoming students at the University of Chicago used an alternate reality game to ease into their life in college, and how you can use augmented reality to appreciate the imagination of David Bowie. But first, a look at a new indoor antenna for your television.

New indoor TV antenna uses cellphone technology to improve reception

On the long weekend I installed a new indoor TV antenna and gave it a try. The Smartenna+ from Channel Master (US$89).

I live in close proximity to where many of the local stations broadcast from, Seymour Mountain. Unfortunately, there’s a ridge between those towers and my house that blocks signals.

What makes the Smartenna+ different from other indoor antennas that capture television signals “over the air” is that it includes a processor that delivers “active steering” of the signals using a special processor. The effect is, Channel Master says, that the Smartenna+ can “eliminate over 90 percent of indoor reception issues that are commonly due to placement and movement.”

It’s also got a signal amplifier and comes with two coaxial cables (6 foot and 16 foot) with push-on connectors (which is more amazing than you might expect).

When I first set it up, it ran a scan of the room to determine where signal interference would be coming from.

Compared to other antennas that I’ve tried the Smartenna+ set up more quickly and delivered available signals better than any other, and I suspect it’s the new standard for indoor TV antennas. The device is $20 to $30 more expensive than other indoor antennas, though.

Writer Josh Friedman shares archive of The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Here’s yet another reason the interwebs are amazing. Writer Josh Friedman, who works in television and film, has posted a bunch of materials that were created while he was producing The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TSCC), a television show set in the universe of The Terminator, that ran for two seasons in 2008 and 2009.

That series was set a few years after the events of the second film, when John rescues his mother, Sarah, from an asylum and they seemingly put an end to the apocalyptic future in which computers become sentient and Skynet attempts to eliminate humanity.

With Lena Headey (now popular for playing Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones) as Sarah Connor and Thomas Dekker as John, one of the unique aspects of TSCC was that one of the primary terminators is a teenage female, played by Summer Glau (from Firefly and Serenity fame).

Included in the materials Friedman has made available are a show bible (a document laying out the universe and characters to be used as a reference), a fictionalized interview Friedman wrote to pump the pilot before the show was picked up, and a plan for Season Two he created to secure a renewal.

Friedman’s brainstorming about what the show could be:

The Sarah Connor Chronicles show bible, written by Josh Friedman:

Synopsis of season two:

This alternate reality game is a better way to ease into university

Next month, many of the Grade 12 students in Canada will be writing exams and doing all the fun and tedious things that come with graduting from school. Those that are heading to university or college in September are already making plans, and one of the things they’ll be thinking about is how to get to know their new school.

The transition into post-secondary education is not always easy, and institutions have come up with programs to make it easier for incoming students. Depending on the school there are tours and seminars and workshops and clubs.

Last fall, the University of Chicago invited the more than 1,800 new students to play an alternate reality game they called The Parasite.

ARGs are set in the real world and are designed for groups of people to come together to play. They contain puzzles and role-playing, and require players to do math and find clues and search for answers.

As with earlier ARGs like The Beast and I Love Bees, these game experiences are notable for getting groups of people who may not even know each other to work together to achieve a common purpose.

With The Parasite the designers were intentionally trying to “make first-generation, low-income, queer, and otherwise marginalized students feel more accepted” by providing an environment to explore and become familiar with.

David Bowie’s style remembered in augmented reality

You can look at this New York Times website in a computer browser, but the experience won’t be the same.

Really, you want to use a smartphone equipped with augmented reality (AR) features, because that’s what makes it feel like what you’re seeing is in the room with you.

In this case, what you’ll see are some of the costumes that defined David Bowie and his various alter egos. The impetus is the traveling exhibit, David Bowie Is, conceived by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and which is at the Brooklyn Museum now. (The show was at the AGO in Toronto way back in 2013.)

Using my iPhone 8+, which is equipped with Apple’s ARKit, I was able to see iconic Bowie outfits in my kitchen, including the harlequin costume from Ashes to Ashes and the outrageous pantaloon jumpsuit from Aladdin Sane.

The New York Times also has an AR feature showing some of the U.S. athletes who were competing in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

Last Wednesday, on The Shift with Drex, guest host Alex Carr and I talked about LG’s promotion to give away free TVs with every G7 preorder, Facebook’s first transparency report, and the clever website In B Flat. I also review the new video game Far Cry 5.

This week, LG really wants you to get a G7 smartphone, Ubisoft travels to Montana with Far Cry 5, Facebook’s first transparency report, and a website lets you mix music.

LG giving away a free TV with every preorder of a G7 smartphone

In an effort to spark sales of its new G7 ThinQ handset, LG is giving away TVs.

The limited time offer is available between May 18 and 31. The smartphone is being released on June 1.

After completing the online claim form, you’ll be able to take your proof of preorder purchase to a participating retailer to get your smart TV. You’ll have until July 31 to claim the bonus.

The screen that LG is offering up is a 43-inch, 4K television that supports high dynamic range. It’s got a retail value of $600.

Far Cry 5’s fits and starts in Big Sky Country

Ubisoft’s latest instalment in the Far Cry series is set in Montana and hinges on a religious cult. While the mechanics of the game are fun, the narrative leaves something to be desired. In trying to tease out the complexity around point of view and perspective, Far Cry 5 ends up being a bit silly.

I’d contrast what I think the developers were trying to do with the six-episode documentary, Wild Wild Country, airing on Netflix, which details the true-life story of the Rajneeshees and their attempt to create a community in Oregon.

Facebook reports on how bad the conversations really are

Facebook is trying to regain some credibility with the first Facebook Transparency Report, something the company says will become standard operating procedure.

The first report is another eye opener. More than 800 million posts were deleted in the first three months of this year, 2.5 million of which were related to hate speech, 1.9 million were considered to be terrorist propaganda, and 3.4 million contained graphic violence.

Most of the content removed from Facebook was considered to be spam.

The report also shows that Facebook deleted 583 million fake accounts in the first quarter of 2018.

Facebook is mostly using computers to do the screening, and the company says part of the problem is that the AI being used are not able to comprehend nuanced language.

None of this has anything to do with protecting the personal information of Facebook users, though, which is what the recent scandals have been about. That remains your responsibility, it seems.

Website demonstrates creative experiment with sound and music

The website In B Flat has been around for nearly ten years, but I’ve just discovered it. The Internet can be an amazing place.

It was created by musician and composer Darren Solomon, and the conceit was simple. He asked people to submit videos of them playing music in the key of B flat.

He chose 20 submissions, then he assembled them in a grid of embedded YouTube videos.

Each video is a performance on a different instrument with its own tempo. There’s a Nintendo DS, guitars, a clarinet, keyboards, a muted trumpet, a violin, and even a toy horn.

When played together they create a soundscape that is absolutely unique.

Because of the curating that Solomon performed, visitors to the site can click on the links in any order and at anytime, even adjusting the volume of the different videos, to create a unique mix of music.

You’ll lose hours playing around at the site, but here’s one person’s arrangement so you can get the idea.