This week, the long-awaited Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is released, a new Skylanders game is announced, using Apple Pay in Canada, and finding out how fast your Internet connection is. But first, using technology to recover your stolen bike.

Technology to safeguard your bike

We’re lucky here in the Lower Mainland because we can ride our bikes all year round. But more people are on bikes in the summertime, which is why the local police departments start publicizing bike security programs.

Here in North Vancouver, where I live, the local RCMP detachment is asking people to register bikes with them. The Get Your Bike Back initiative has you emailing pertinent details directly to the division so they can return your bike to you in the event it is stolen, and found.

A number of other police forces in the Lower Mainland, including the Vancouver Police Department, West Vancouver Police Department, and the RCMP detachments in Richmond and Surrey, are endorsing Project 529, an online community of cyclists where you can register your bike.

The Kamloops RCMP are also encouraging citizens to use Project 529.

It’s free to register your bike with Project 529, and police officers can use the information to track down stolen bikes.

The difference with Project 529 is that if your bike gets stolen, the entire community of users gets notified and can be on the lookout, too.

You can purchase a shield that you can put on your bikes to identify them as being registered with Project 529.

Or you can visit one of the B.C. bike shops that are part of the Project 529 community.

Find out how fast your Internet connection is

Ever wanted to know how fast your connection is?

Fast.com is new tool that can tell you how good your download speed is. It works with computers, mobile devices, and even smart TVs equipped with web browsers.

The tool was developed by Netflix. The better your download speed, the better the quality of your Netflix stream. It’s one way that the company is looking to respond to customers who may complain about the image quality.

Check your speed. You’ll probably discover that the problem is with your Internet provider, not Netflix.

And this is true for any of the streaming video services, including Crave and Shomi.

If you’re looking for more detailed information about your connection, including upload speed and things like latency, there are other services out there, including Speed Test.

Apple Pay in Canada now works with your debit card

A couple of months ago, some of the major Canadian banks rolled out with Apple Pay, the service from the Califonia-based company that enables you to make payments with your smartphone.

Now they’re all on board. As of last week, you can sign up your Interac debit card for the following institutions to work with Apple Pay:

• Bank of Montreal
• CIBC
• Royal Bank
• Scotiabank
• TD Canada Trust

Apple Pay also works with a number of credit cards (here’s the full list).

Last week, I went out to fill up my barbecue’s propane tank, and forgot my wallet at home. Didn’t matter. I was able to use my iPhone 6S+ to pay.

The next day, I used my Apple Watch.

I’m already used to not having to haul my wallet out. The faster we can get Translink’s Compass Card working with smartphones the better.

You can use Apple Pay at any merchant that has tap enabled on their terminal, so just look for the four curved lines that point to the right. You will need an iPhone 6 or later and Apple Watch paired with an iPhone 5 or later.

Video game update: Mirror’s Edge Catalyst releases, new Skylanders game announced

Next week I’ll be reporting in from E3 in Los Angeles about all things video games. But there’s some interesting video game news this week, too.

Yesterday, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst was released. Developed in Sweden by DICE and published by Electronic Arts, I’ve been waiting for a new game in this franchise since playing the first game in 2008.

The new game is a reboot of the story, but from what I’ve seen, it retains what made that first game so magical: running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop. What Catalyst does better than the first game is get rid of the weaponized combat. (Read more about Catalyst at the Straight).

The other big news was from Activision, and was an announcement of a new Skylanders toys-to-life game. With Skylanders: Imaginators, coming this October, players will be able to invent and create their own heroes to play with. (Read more about Imaginators at the Straight).

Last night on CKNW, Charmaine de Silva and Tim Dickert were filling in on Drex Live.

We talked about the Eqo cellphone signal booster, Jabra’s Sport Coach earbuds, and the Snickers campaign in Australia that is measuring the anger of the Internet.

And we gave away a whole bunch of “Loot Crate”: goodies, including Walking Dead soap-on-a-rope, which is zombie ears, just like the one Daryl Dixon created.

This week, my take on the Jabra Sport Coach earbuds, a list of prize packs to be given away on Drex Live tonight, and how an angry Internet is getting some Aussies a nice discount on a chocolate bar. But first, how you can get a better cellular signal in your home.

Boost your mobile signal with Eqo

If you live in a concrete apartment building, you might find that your cellular signal leaves something to be desired. Or maybe when you head out to the Gulf Islands your connection is a bit sketchy.

That’s where Eqo comes in. This is a cellular signal booster that will help you out with dropped signals and frustrations with slow data.

The device is manufactured by WeBoost, a company that makes big, industrial signal boosters and the Eqo is the simple, everyday person version that can be set up in about 5 minutes.

You put the booster unit where you’ve got a decent signal, and then the antenna six feet away. An Eqo representative told me that you can get up to 32 times better coverage.

And the Eqo works where you’ve got a crappy signal, too. It works like a megaphone does with sound. Even if you whisper into a megaphone, your voice still gets amplified.

The Eqo is priced at Cdn$500 and is currently available at Best Buy stores.

Jabra’s Sport Coach Bluetooth earbuds work great

I’m always on the lookout for headphones that fit me comfortably and work well for what I need them to do.

I’ve had the Jabra Sport Coach earbuds for a few weeks, now, and I think they’re great.

The sound quality of these is really good, considering the size. What’s more important for me is that they be good for communicating, and these are. They are designed so the cord goes around the back of your neck. Before when I’ve tried headphones that are behind-the-neck I’ve found they are unable to pick up my voice well enough. But that’s not the case with the Sport Coach. In my tests, the inline microphone worked just fine.

They’re comfortable, too, with two methods to keep the earbuds in place: four different sizes of silicon buds that fit into your ear canal, and three different sizes of wings which fit into your outer ear.

Designed for use while being active, the Sport Coach are water and dust resistant. And with a built-in motion sensor, you can use them with Jabra’s free Sport Life app (for Android and iOS), which provides you with workouts (BellyBurn or CardiCore, for example) and complete instructions on what to do.

The earbuds will also work with other fitness apps including RunKeeper and Runtastic.

A two-hour charge will give you about four hours of battery life.

You can find the Sport Coach for between Cdn$130 and $170, depending on the colour (they come in blue, red, and yellow).

Loot Crate goodies to give away

On Drex Live tonight, we’re giving out some more Loot Crate gear. Be ready to call in for your chance at the following prize packs:

• Hulk Q-Fig figure and Star Trek leggings
• a “Legend” t-shirt (the movie starring David Bowie) and some video-game branded socks (there are two of these)
• a Warcrat t-shirt and a Dragon Ball Z plush keychain
• a Walking Dead prize pack with a collectible figure, a long sleeve t-shirt featuring Michonne, and soap-on-a-rope with zombie “ears”
• a Vikings drinking horn and Uncharted 4 poster (there are two of these)

Clever Aussies use Internet to change free market

A whip-smart agency down under has come up with a great campaign for Snickers.

They’ve come up with an algorithm that analyzes social media posts on social media to gauge the “anger of the Internet”. It’s called the “hungerithm”.

And the angrier the Internet is, the cheaper you can purchase a Snickers bar at local 7-Eleven stores. In the past few days, prices have been as low as $.50 (the regular price seems to be $1.15), because of reaction to the Champions League soccer final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid last Saturday.

Only in Australia, though. Pity.

No audio this week, because of a bad phone connection, but that didn’t stop Drex and I from talking about Bill Gates’ blog, and the VR video of his conversation with author Neal Stephenson.

We spent a good chunk of time talking about NOVA’s short video series, The Secret Life of Scientists & Engineers, which begins a new season next week.

Google Daydream, and its potential impact on the virtual reality space, was also discussed.

And while talking about the new Dyson V8 vacuum, we learned that the measure of a vacuum’s “suckiness” is called an airwatt. I’ve tried the new V8. I don’t know how Dyson engineers keep making these things better.

This week, why Bill Gates is cool again, a look at Dyson’s new vacuum that is somehow better than it’s previous best-ever vacuum, and the secret lives of scientists. But first, Google does VR a bit better than Cardboard with Daydream.

Google’s going deeper into VR with Daydream

Google’s been playing around with VR for a while. Cardboard is the company’s DIY solution for anyone who wants to experience virtual reality cheaply; with it you can build a device that will hold an Android smartphone and provide basic VR.

Daydream is Google’s next step into VR, and it was announced last week at the I/O developer’s conference in California. The software part of Daydream is built with Android N, the codename for the next version of the mobile operating system.

Google hasn’t announced that it is making hardware for Daydream, but it is making it easy for other manufacturers to do so. And a reference design, which suggests to hardware companies how they might want to support Daydream, was also released at I/O. It includes a headset that holds a smartphone as well as a single remote control with motion-sensing capabilities.

Dyson’s cordless vacuums just keep getting better

Like many other software and device developers, engineers at Dyson are constantly looking for ways to improve on products. Perhaps the best example of this are the handheld vacuums, which run on digital motors.

The Dyson digital motor is, I was told by a spokesperson during a product demonstration in March, propelling the company’s innovation, in part because digital motors are more efficient than carbon-based motors. The digital motors are also much more, as evidenced by the new V8 handheld vacuum.

This is a cordless vacuum. At under six pounds in weight, it can be manipulated with only one hand. And it’s got more suction than the big machine I had to use as a kid to help clean the house I grew up in.

The motor in this thing spins at 110,000 rpm. It’s got a better battery life, providing 40 minutes of use on a charge, and it’s quieter (50% quieter if you’re measuring in decibels). You know how they made it quieter? In part it was by changing how the air flows through the vacuum. Dampening the air exiting the machine helps keep the volume down.

And the attention to detail is here, too. The buttons that are used to connect and disconnect attachments used to be on the main vacuum itself, but have been moved to the attachment, making it far easier to switch things out.

Even emptying the vacuum’s bin is easier than it used to be, which has always been a one-button push effort.

The new Dyson V8 vacuums are available now for $700 (V8 Absolute) and $600 (V8 Animal).

Bill Gates drives a Tesla while interviewing Neal Stephenson

Bill Gates is cool. Seriously, he’s got solid politics and he’s using his money to make the world a better place.

And I’m saying this as the author of a book, called Microman: What Life Might Be Like if You Were Bill Gates, that poked a lot of fun at Gates when he was a favourite target.

Maybe he needed to get away from Microsoft to come into his own. But he’s keeping a blog, called Gates Notes, where he writes about books he’s reading, and interviews interesting people. And because he’s Bill Gates, he gets to talk to some interesting people.

A recent post from Bill is about the book Seveneves, and it includes his conversation with author Neal Stephenson (they both live in the metro Seattle area). But it’s not just any video, this is one that was filmed to be viewed in VR.

And it was filmed while the two drove around in Bill’s Tesla.

I’m telling you, Bill’s getting better with age.

NOVA unveils the secret lives of scientists

NOVA is this amazing media group that is part of PBS. One of the projects to come from the producers is The Secret Life of Scientists & Engineers, a series of short videos that spotlight smart people.

Among the people profiled are some you’d expect, like Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye, but there are other famous people you may not have known were in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.

Take Blossom and Big Bang Theory actor Mayim Bialik, who is a neuroscientist.

Or former NFL cheerleader Mireya Mayor, who works as a primatologist.

Tom Scholz has a Master’s degree from MIT in engineering and is also a musician and the founder of the band Boston.

And then there’s Rachel Collins, who is a microbiologist, and also a professional wrestler, MsChif. Just watch.