Apple had a media briefing on Monday, and as usual, everybody’s talking about what happened. Plus, the annual TED Conference starts next week. Were you invited?

Edit: Thanks to the Drex Live listener who set me straight tonight. Apple’s new MacBook does indeed have a headphone jack, so you don’t need to run out and buy new earphones just yet. Thanks, listener!

What’s that on your wrist?

Now we know. The Apple Watch will be available to preorder in Canada on April 10 for release on April 24.

Clearly, Apple does not intend for regular people to get an Apple Watch. It is a premium, lifestyle product intended for select consumers. To try it on at an Apple retail store you’ll need to make an appointment.

Then there’s the cost of getting one. First, you have to have a iPhone, series 5 or later, which is required for the watch to work.

The cheapest you can get an Apple Watch is $449 for the Apple Watch Sport. A metal band moves you into the Apple Watch range, where you’ll pay at least $699. I don’t personally know anyone who is getting an Apple Watch Edition, which is made of gold and starts at $13,000.

I’ve used the Samsung Galaxy Gear and Gear 2 smart watches, but neither of them worked very well. I expect a better experience from Apple, but I haven’t had a chance to see or try the Apple Watch, so I can’t speak to how it looks, or fits, or wears, or works.

It’s probably really cool. Apple stuff usually is.

But I can get an iPad mini 3 for $399. Or an iPad Air 2 for $499, the premium tablet. Only $50 more than the base model Apple Watch Sport.

Hmmm.

Other announcements from Apple

Apple’s got a new trackpad that is pressure sensitive. It’s called Force Touch and it enables a whole range of interactivity with your fingertips. You can click anywhere, for one thing. But you can also set up your Apple laptop to respond to deeper clicks, like opening a browser link in a new tab, for example.

The new Force Touch trackpad is also standard on the new MacBook, which was also announced on Monday. And just like the MacBook Air shocked people when Steve Jobs revealed it in January 2008 (no disc drive? no replaceable battery? no ethernet port? horrors!), the newest Apple laptop has raised eyebrows.

It has only one port: a single USB-C that handles charging, data transfers, and video ouput. Even more than the Air, this machine is designed to be used wirelessly. It’s also thinner and lighter than the Air, which is astounding.

It also has a redesigned (and full-sized) keyboard and a Retina display, but is expected to have a similar battery life to the small-size Air, which I can get a full day out of.

I think many people are going to discover, as they did after the Air was around for a few years, that there is little need for all the ports on their laptops. I think people will miss the headphone jack, though. MacBook requires that you’ve got wireless headphones and that may be the biggest stumble for people.

Here’s where you can watch TED2015 talks live

As of 2014, the TED conference now calls Vancouver home, but that doesn’t make it any easier for those of us who live here to attend. If you want to attend you have to apply, and if you’re invited to be there it’ll cost you US$8,500.

TED2015, which runs from March 16 through March 20, is already sold out, but if you want to watch any of the presentations that will take place over the five-day affair, you can. For $500 you can stream it live to your boardroom or living room.

Or you can visit one of these locations in Vancouver where the conference will be streamed free:

• Vancouver Public Library
• Science World
• University of British Columbia, Faculty of Education and main library branch
• Vancouver International Film Centre
• Potluck Café Society
• Langara College
• Emily Carr University of Art + Design
• YWCA Metro Vancouver
• The AMP
• Vancouver Community Network
• Wolrige Foundation
• Stratford Hall Secondary School
• David Suzuki Foundation

Other municipalities in B.C. will also be making live streams available, including:

• Burnaby
• Coquitlam
• Delta
• Langley
• New Westminster
• North Vancouver
• Richmond
• Squamish
• Surrey
• Victoria
• West Vancouver
• Whistler

The theme of TED2015 is “Truth & Dare” and includes such speakers as:

• Daniel Kish, who teaches humans how to echolocate
• Sara Seager, who is hunting for a twin Earth
• Theaster Gates, who helped create artist-run spaces in Chicago
• Roman Mars, creator and host of the podcast, 99% Invisible
• Monica Lewinsky (!)

The full list of speakers is here.

Last Wednesday I walked Drex through how Microsoft is hoping to make things easier for game developers – and players. Also, an update on Sony’s virtual reality headset, Project Morpheus, and why Evolve is a game to play.

Listen here.

This week, the annual Game Developer’s Conference is taking place. Some news, then, from San Francisco. Plus, a look at some recently released video games.

Microsoft makes it easier for games

In San Francisco today, head of Xbox Phil Spencer talked about how gaming is becoming a part of the Microsoft ecosystem. We already knew that Windows 10 will have an Xbox app; now we know that developers will be able to make a game once, and have it be available on every Windows device.

And consumers are going to be able to buy a game once, and play it on any Windows device. With some games, they’ll be able to play with friends on different devices, so if you like playing on a computer and I prefer a console, we can still play together.

Sony’s virtual reality system coming in 2016

Also at GDC, PlayStation revealed the latest update of its “Project Morpheus” virtual reality headset. It sports an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display that has a resolution of 1920×1080 and can output images at 120 frames per second. The company plans on having it ready for consumer release “in the first half of 2016”.

Evolve, Dying Light, Grim Fandango, New Nintendo 3DS XL

I’ve been getting scant time to play video games lately, but I have been playing Evolve, a new multiplayer shooter from the makers of Left 4 Dead, and Dying Light, an open-world survival game that has you being chased by zombies.

Anyone who was playing games in 1998 will know about Grim Fandango, a hilarious adventure game in which you are a grim reaper who isn’t the best salesman. It’s been remastered and reissued and is still as funny as it was 15 years ago.

The New Nintendo 3DS XL was also recently released, and it brings better 3-D viewing and support for the Amiibo action figures.

Read more about Evolve, Dying Light, Grim Fandango, and the New Nintendo 3DS XL in my column at the Straight.

Last Wednesday, Drex and I talked about texting while driving, and the OneTap to help people control that urge. We also talked about an app that can help you identify battery hogging apps on your iPhone.

Here are some new apps for your mobile devices that are worth taking a look at.

Save yourself — and others — from distracted driving

It’s too bad that OneTap is only available for Android devices right now, because it’s the kind of practical tool that can save lives.

We’ve all seen people flaunting the distracted driving laws by tapping away on their phones while driving. It’s illegal to do so even while at a stop light. According to Calgary’s AppColony, which created the app, 80 percent of the five million car accidents that occur in North America each year are caused by distracted drivers.

OneTap can prevent all that. It detects when your vehicle is in motion and screens your alerts and notifications so you won’t be tempted to answer that all-important message. But OneTap doesn’t just keep you from being distracted, it sends a reply back to whomever is trying to reach you, letting them know you’re driving, and can’t respond.

If the message is urgent, people trying to reach you can have OneApp notify you that you need to pull over and get in touch.

The app uses the phone’s sensors to determine if you’re in a vehicle, as opposed to walking. And if you’re a passenger, you can tap the screen to disable OneApp.

If you’ve got teenagers on the road, you can connect your OneApp account with theirs and be able to see on your map where they are.

OneTap is coming to iOS, but AppColony hasn’t said when.

Find out which apps are killing your iPhone battery

Don’t you just hate getting near the end of the day and having your phone run out of juice? It’s even worse when you’ve barely used it.

Batteries on all mobile devices will drain more quickly when you have them connecting using Wi-fi or Bluetooth, or if you’re watching videos. And you can always prolong battery life by turning off those connections. Or you can change which apps use those connections.

But with so many apps running on our devices, and so many of them connecting to the Internet, it can be difficult to figure out which of them are draining your battery. Normal aims to change that.

Developed by Kuro Labs, Normal collects information about what apps your phone is using and what the battery level is, and then adds that information to other data collected from other users.

By comparing your phone to those of “hundreds of thousands of users,” Kuro can “accurately and precisely pinpoint the battery hogs on your device.” It tells you what your average battery life is.

It will also tell you if other users are having the same problem, and how much you’ll extend your battery life by turning off or deleting the battery-killing apps.Then it walks you through the steps you need to take to correct the problem.

This morning when I unplugged my iPhone 6 Plus from the outlet, I checked Normal and discovered that by closing, not just pausing, the Facebook app I could gain 76 minutes in battery life. Normal also suggested I turn off the “background refresh” option in the Facebook app preferences, which is a more permanent solution to the problem.

Go snowboarding with Alto

This game is sublime. It’s an “endless runner,” which means the goal is to keep going for as long as you can, which is a perfect mechanic for smartphone gaming, because you don’t need to have your thumbs and fingers all over the screen. Games like this need to differentiate themselves, though, because they are so simple to play. Alto’s Adventure, developed in Toronto by the small studio, Snowman, sets itself apart with a distinct art style and really fluid gameplay. It’s $2.29 and so far only available for iOS. Well worth the purchase.