It was Earth Day last Sunday, so this week we’ll look at some new batteries that are a bit more eco-friendly and the success of London Drugs’ recycling program. Also, Flickr has been bought. What does that mean for your account? But first, an explanation for all the emails you’ve been getting from the social media sites this week.

Why you’re getting so many “updates to our terms of service” emails this week

If you’re like me, you’ve been getting lots of emails from various companies and organizations with whom you’ve got online accounts.

Twitter, Instagram, and Sonos were among the global corporations to communicate with users about changes to terms of service, data, and privacy policies this week:

• Twitter and Periscope terms of service and privacy policy
• Instagram terms of use and data policy
• Sonos privacy statement

Because there’s been so much talk recently about Facebook and the Cambridge Analytica fiasco, you might think that these changes have something to do with that.

They don’t.

The changes in privacy policies is a result of an impending change to European Union law called the General Data Protection Regulation. The idea is to “harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, to protect and empower all EU citizens data privacy and to reshape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy.”

Sounds like a good idea to me.

The regulation was adopted two years ago but becomes enforceable on May 25, and while it only technically impacts EU citizens, any company that has information on EU residents must comply, or face hefty fines (4% of worldwide turnover or €20 million, whichever is higher).

One of the big changes is in what “consent” means. Hunton Andrews Kurth lay out the specific conditions.

Some companies are choosing to roll out the same rights to all users that are being afforded to EU citizens. Here’s how Slack is preparing for GDPR..

Others, like Facebook, seem to be trying to limit the number of users protected by the regulation.

These Fuji batteries are safe for landfills

Back in 2005, Statistics Canada reported that 60 percent of Canadians threw batteries in the garbage. This was a problem, because batteries used to be made of toxic materials like mercury, cadmium, lithium, and lead. Many batteries still are.

You can reduce the number of batteries you need to dispose of by using rechargeable ones, but they still have to be disposed of at some point.

That’s what makes Fuji EnviroMAX batteries so interesting. They do not use those same toxic materials and they are packaged with materials that can be easily recycled.

Fuji Batteries Canada is also making it possible for organizations like schools and sports teams to sell the batteries to raise funds for their initiatives.

A soccer team could sell packages of four AA batteries for $5, for example, and keep half that amount for tournament fees or team hoodies.

Now even though these batteries are technically safe for the trash, you should still have them recycled properly.

London Drugs has diverted 113 million pounds of junk from the landfill

For ten years, London Drugs has been collecting materials for recycling from customers. This has ranged from batteries to packaging to computers and electronics.

The company reports that in the last decade, it has diverted more than 113 million pounds of waste from the landfill.

Here’s the list of what you can recycle at your local London Drugs store:

• Electrical and electronic goods (TVs, VCRs, computers, monitors, printers, small appliances, etc.)
• Styrofoam
• Plastic overwrapping and foam packaging (BC only)
• Plastic and cardboard packaging from products purchased at London Drugs
• Cell phones, PDA and rechargeable batteries
• Alkaline Batteries
• Compact Fluorescent Bulbs (CFL’s) incandescent or LED light bulbs, Christmas lights and fluorescent light tubes up to 4-foot lengths
• Disposable cameras
• Ink jet cartridges
• Laser cartridges
• Metal film canisters
• Plastic shopping bags
• Pop bottles and cans (BC only)
• Insurance plastic folders

Flickr, once a darling of the online world, being acquired by SmugMug

Flickr took the Internet by storm in 2004. It actually spun out of an attempt by Stewart Butterfield to create a video game that would never end. When funding for that dried up, the Vancouver and San Francisco startup pivoted and decided to see if the photo-sharing tool they had built for the game had potential.

Butterfield would do the same thing in 2013 when he spun team communication service Slack out of Glitch, another video game project he imagined could last forever.

The photo service was acquired by Yahoo in 2005 when both companies were in their prime. Yahoo has since declined, and was purchased by Verizon last year.

SmugMug, meanwhile, is privately owned and has stuck to the plan it launched with in 2002: provide a paid service to people who want to store and share their photos online. In an interview with USA Today, CEO Don MacAskill said, “We don’t mine our customers’ photos for information to sell to the highest bidder, or to turn into targeted advertising campaigns.”

Flickr, which has a free account option, will be run as a standalone service while SmugMug collects feedback from users, according to MacAskill.

If you have a Flickr account

Your photos and videos will automatically transfer to SmugMug on May 25. You have until then to download your data and delete your account.

Last night, on The Shift with Drex, Drex and I talked about the BlackBerry Motion handset, Dominos’ driverless delivery vehicle, Amazon’s Echo Spot now available in Canada, and the outstanding new video game, God of War.

This week, the BlackBerry brand continues to eke out an existence with the Motion handset, Dominos Pizza wants to half deliver your supper, Amazon’s Spot, the video capable Echo, comes to Canada, and God of War is an exceptional game.

BlackBerry tries again with Motion smartphone

The Motion Android handset doesn’t come from the BlackBerry you remember, but BlackBerry Mobile, operated by Hong Kong-based TCL Communications, which has the license to create BlackBerry smartphones. (BlackBerry is now a software and services company.)

The BlackBerry KeyOne, released in the spring of 2017, was the first under the new licensing agreement, included the physical keyboard that has set BlackBerry devices apart from other smartphones

The Motion, released in Canada last fall, doesn’t have the keyboard. It looks like many of the other premium handsets on the market with a 5.5-inch edge-to-edge display. It’s square edges set it apart, as does the soft textured back.

The key benefit to the Motion is the battery, which will give you about two days of moderate usage. It also has quick charging functionality, which can get you a 50 percent charge in a little over half an hour.

Some of BlackBerry’s software also distinguish the Motion. In particular, BlackBerry Hub, which consolidates notifications into one feed, and DTEK, a security overview.

Aside from that, the Motion is average at best. Average camera. Average storage capacity (32 GB). Average screen.

The BlackBerry Motion costs $600 unlocked, so it’s not exactly competing with the Samsung Galaxy S9 ($960) and Google Pixel 2 ($900). But when compared to other mid-range devices like those that come from Asus, Motorola, and OnePlus, the Motion lacks the same specs at a higher price.

Amazon’s Echo Spot comes to Canada next week

Alexa has been officially supported in Canada since the end of 2017, but the latest device from Amazon doesn’t arrive until next week.

The Echo Spot, which adds a screen to the digital assistant and speaker, is available for preorder now, and ships on April 25, 2018.

The Spots each cost Can$170, but for a limited time you can save $50 when ordering two.

You can use the Spot in the same way that you use other Echo devices, to make calls, play music, control smart home functions, and ask Alexa for information.

But the screen means that you can now make and receive video calls and you can see the weather forecast.

You can even use the Spot as an alarm clock.

Dominos wants to deliver you pizza in a self-driving car

Last year, Ford Motor Company started testing its autonomous vehicles in Ann Arbor, Michigan in partnership wth pizza maker Dominos.

The two companies are taking things further now with news that the program is being launched in Miami.

There are drivers in these vehicles but they will not be interacting with customers.

Really, this seems to be more about testing how well the vehicles, which have a special compartment in the vehicle that can be unlocked by customers with a code so they can retrieve their order.

Sounds fine for Miami, but I don’t know how well this halfway delivery will work in Winnipeg in December, or Vancouver in April.

Kratos grows up in new video game God of War

God of War is a game only a parent could make. And it’s a game only parents will truly appreciate. Read more about the PS4 exclusive in my review at the Straight.

Wednesday, on The Shift with Drex, Drex and I talked about Microsoft using renewable energy to power data centres, paintings created by computers, the Virtuali-Tee AR experience, and the puzzle game Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle.

This week, computers try to learn how to paint, a new puzzle game celebrates Friday the 13th, and a t-shirt gives a glimpse at what’s inside our bodies. But first, Microsoft is going solar.

Microsoft moves to add more solar energy

We all love the benefits that come from cloud computing, but those data centres and server farms require a lot of electricity to function.

Microsoft has reached a company goal of having half of the energy requirements of its data centres powered by renewable energy.

Even having reached that goal, Microsoft continues to invest in sustainable energy sources. In March, Microsoft announced a deal with a new Virginia-based solar array with some 750,000 panels.

Ryan Creamer, the CEO of sPower, said that the Microsoft agreement means that his company can sell the rest of the energy generated by his facilities at competitive rates.

These AI-generated paintings are stunning, surreal, scary

Robbie Barrat is teaching computers to be artists. Or, more accurately, he has given computers the tools to teach themselves how to be artists.

And the results are as strange as you might imagine.

Barrat is using deep convolutional generative adversarial networks (DCGAN) to do this, which is a form of machine learning in which one computer system generates an image and another, the adversary, evaluates the image. The generator keeps making images in an attempt to fool the “discriminator”.

The two systems need a data set to start with, and Barrat has been using as his painting sources the artwork that is freely available online.

He’s used the process to create portraits, and landscapes with interesting results.

The artificial intelligence seems to be reasonably good at figuring out the landscapes, even if they’re a bit dreamy.

The portraits seem like they are examples of cubism or something that may have come from one of Dali’s students.

The nudes, though, are nothing short of horrific. Barrat explained that the paintings are the result of the computer systems not being able “to tell the difference between blobs of flesh and humans.”

As Barrat wrote on Twitter: I wonder if that’s how machines see us.

Get ready for some mayhem with Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle

A new game sending up the Friday the 13th horror movie franchise is being released this Friday. The keen among you will recognize that this Friday is the 13th of April.

Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle, from B.C.-based Blue Wizard Digital, both celebrates and pokes fun at the tropes to be found in the horror movies featuring Jason Voorhees, but at its core is a puzzle game. It just so happens that you complete the puzzle by helping Jason murder campers and camp counsellors.

The mechanics were developed for Blue Wizard’s earlier game, Slayaway Camp (available on most platforms including consoles). Players control the movement of the killer around an isometric board and have to cause the death of the bystanders either overtly, with all manner of weapons, or by scaring them into environmental hazards like campfires and wood chippers.

The levels get more difficult as you progress, and you might find yourself frustrated to the point you’re almost willing to commit murder if you’re not careful.

The game is a licensed product. In a release, Friday the 13th series creator Sean Cunningham said, “I​ ​loved​ ​the​ ​balance​ ​of​ ​horror​ ​and​ ​humor​ ​the​ ​Blue​ ​Wizard​ ​guys​ ​brought​ ​to​ ​Slayaway​ ​Camp,​ and​ ​I’m​ ​thrilled​ ​to​ ​see​ ​their​ ​take​ ​on​ ​Friday​ ​the​ ​13th.”

Blue Wizard was founded by Jason Kapalka, who cofounded PopCap Games and had a hand in creating Bejeweled, Peggle, and Plants vs Zombies.

Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle releases this Friday. It’s free to play for Android and iOS mobile devices, and also available on Steam.

Virtuali-Tee shows the inner workings of the human body

A t-shirt from Curiscope uses augmented reality to show the systems at work inside our bodies. The blue shirts have a graphic on the front that trigger a 3D animation on a smartphone or tablet (Android or iOS).

What you see is the inside of a body. There are icons you can tap to get a closer look at different systems, like the circulatory, digestive, and skeletal.

There are learning videos, too, that illuminate different aspects of the body’s interior.

The 100 percent tees are designed for kids, but also come in adult sizes. Order your Virtuali-Tee for US$30.