Last night, Drex and I talked about Google’s announcement of Google Assistant. Which led us into a conversation about the connected home, of course.

We also talked about how SFU is encouraging girls to get involved in science, technology, engineering, and math, and three female grade 6 students who are semifinalists for an international tech competition for a smartphone app they’ve created.

Oh, and I talk about how much fun Uncharted 4 is.

It all happens weekly on CKNW.

Listen up.

This week, some girls in grade 6 code an app to help hikers stay safe, SFU looks to give girls an introduction to computer science and robotics, Twitter may exclude photos and links from the 140-character limit, and Google unveils its digital assistant. But first, the game Uncharted 4 brings the story of Nathan Drake to an end.

Uncharted 4 a fitting, thrilling finale for adventure series

In the Straight last week I reviewed Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, which I describe as being a fantastic movie.

Note that it’s also a game, but it’s a specific kind of game, and it’s important to keep that in mind when talking about it.

The Uncharted games and The Last of Us all come from Naughty Dog, and a studio they have focused efforts on giving players an opportunity to embody interesting characters who are involved in incredible stories.

It’s a very different thing from the open-world games like Destiny, Fallout, and Grand Theft Auto.

I really enjoyed Uncharted 4, by the way. It’s an incredible achievement for a studio that keeps setting the bar higher, and getting well over it.

Google announces Assistant and Home

At the annual I/O developer conference in Mountain View, California today, CEO Sundar Pichai showed off Google Home, a small speaker for the home, which will be powered by Google Assistant, a digital artificial intelligence similar to Amazon’s Alexa, or Apple’s Siri.

Google already has Google Now, which is a digital assistant you can talk to, but the company claims that the functionality of its Assistant, supported by years of data collection, will be superior to any other service being offered.

In a demonstration today, the company showed how Assistant can track a conversation with a user, so it’s not a simple “ask one question, get one answer, repeat” experience. Instead, users can ask follow-up questions and have a “conversation” with you.

And when used with Google Home, the Assistant can take care of home automation, also. It can talk to Google’s Chromecast device, and I suspect it will also work with the Nest products before long.

Twitter may be making changes to 140-character limit

It’s not a done deal, but Bloomberg reports that Twitter is going to make it easier to add photos and links to tweets.

The move would exclude links and photos from the 140-character tweet limit. Currently, images use up 24 characters while links use up 23 characters.

If the rumours are true, expect to see the change in the next couple of weeks.

SFU science faculty give girls a glimpse at a life in IT

Last weekend was the latest Girls Get IT event at Simon Fraser University (SFU).

The annual event provides females aged 9 through 11 with an opportunity to spend the day at SFU learning about what it’s like to have a career as a computer scientist or engineer.

My daughter took part this year, and reports that she had a great time. The group she was with spent half the day learning how to tell a story using Scratch, a project of the MIT Media Lab that makes provides a simple interface to program interactive stories.

The second part of the day they spent at the robotics lab which is equipped with VEX robotics components that can be snapped together to learn how to create robots and robotic applications.

Girls Get IT is a supported by SFU’s Faculty of Applied Sciences.

North Vancouver students named semi-finalists for tech competition

Technovation is an organization set up to challenge girls to build a mobile app to solve a problem in their community. This year, three students from Ross Road Elementary in Lynn Valley are semi-finalists in the international competition.

In their pitch video, which you can watch below, Madeline Williams describes her community as being “on the edge of the wilderness.”

The app designed by SEM Coderz (watch a demo of the app in action) is called Hike Safe, and is a response to the two million hikers that use the trails in the area every year.

Eleni McLaughlin and Saoirse Pontin round out the trio of developers. Their app will help hikers determine – before they begin their trek – whether they can finish safely before sunset. It takes into account the route being taken, the fitness level of the hiker, the time of sunset, and the time the hike is to begin.

Hike Safe is a practical, pragmatic, simple solution to a problem that North Shore Rescue confirms is one of the key reasons that hikers end up in distress.

And like any good development team, SEM Coderz have also planned updates to the app that would permit agencies like North Shore Rescue to broadcast information about trails and conditions. They’re also wanting to add language options, a good idea considering how many out-of-town visitors enjoy the local trails.

SEM Coderz were helped by Cher Main and the Vancouver chapter of Girls Learning Code.

Four teams of girls 14 and younger will be invited to the World Pitch Summit 2016 in San Francisco this July. One of those teams will receive US$10,000 to help launch their app.

Last night on Drex Live, topics included Sunday’s segment on The Simpsons where Homer Simpson responds, live, to audience questions, the new fines for distracted driving that take effect in B.C. on June 1, the licensing deal between Steam and Lionsgate, and what makes Lego’s new Nexo Knights franchise something different.

Listen here.

This week, it’ll cost you more if you text and drive, catch the Hunger Games films on Steam, and what makes Nexo Knights something different from Lego. But first, Homer Simpson gets his first live TV spot.

Homer Simpson, live

The Simpsons television show has broken plenty of new ground in its 27 years on air. This Sunday, May 15, it will do so again.

Homer Simpson will appear live for three minutes at the end of the episode, answering questions from fans during the east and west coast broadcasts (8:00 p.m. ET and PT).

The producers are pulling the stunt off using motion capture on actor Dan Castellaneta, who performs the voice of Homer.

The producers have indicated they will be selecting questions that will help prove that the animations truly are being created on the fly.

If you’ve got a question for Homer you can call 1-888-726-6660 or tweet using the hashtag #homerlive.

Doing so implies you’ve agreed to Fox’s terms of participation.

Province beefs up distracted driving penalties

Put your smartphones away, drivers. Get caught using one while operating a motor vehicle and you’ll be facing a total fine of $543. Get caught a second time within a year and the fine goes up to $888 and comes with an automatic review and possible driving ban.

The province of B.C. yesterday announced a new base fine of $368 for distracted driving, with escalating penalty-point premiums for repeat offences within a 12-month period. The base fine had been $167.

If a person racks up 10 offences in a year, the total fine would be $14,928. Think that’s not possible? Last month, a Vancouver-area driver lost her license after accumulating 14 distracted driving tickets. But that took her five years to do.

The new fines take effect on June 1.

The changes come out of public consultation on distracted driving that the province held last summer.

There was no announcement of a wider range of activities that classify as distracted driving, however. I’d really like to see people driving with dogs in their laps get a ticket or two.

Steam moves even further into film distribution with Lionsgate

Steam is an online, digital distribution service operated by Valve Software. It’s primarily used for the sale and distribution of video games, but Valve has been expanding it with other forms of entertainment.

Last week, Valve made the biggest move yet into the general entertainment space by signing a deal with Lionsgate Films.

The licensing agreement makes more than 100 feature films available on Steam, including blockbuster series Divergent, Hunger Games, Saw, and Twilight.

Steam users can watch films on computers, on televisions, and even in virtual reality headsets with SteamVR.

Nexo Knights is Lego’s newest multi-channel property

The newest Lego franchise, Nexo Knights, mashes up the medieval with the modern with characters that are armed with swords and shields that can download special powers.

Lego has been leveraging its properties with television shows and video games before, but with Nexo Knights it all works together in ways that it never has before.

A mobile app, Merlok 2.0, is a touchscreen-enabled game that has characters from the world battling enemies. But the app is more than just a beat-em-up game. It’s also the connection point for the episodes and the building sets.

Particular images found on shields in the television show and on the mini-figures can be scanned into the app, providing powers to the characters in the app.

Merlok 2.0 is a free download available for Android and iOS.

Topics for Drex and I last week included Radiohead’s disappearing act, which set the stage for the release of the first single from the new album, the Vancouver connection for the video game and film Ratchet & Clank, the Battleborn preview animated comics, and smartphone app Waze, which aims to be a better way to navigate while driving.

Listen to the conversation.