After telling Drex that the best way to get to Whistler is by helicopter, we talk about the low-light capability of the Sony A7s camera and the 20-frames-per-second shooting possible with the Nikon J4.

I explain how the iPhone 6 Plus is big, but I’m learning to adjust because I love the screen so much, and we mention Samsung’s smaller smartphone, the Alpha, that was announced last week.

Then we talk about the Google announcements, the Apple “leaks” about the iPad press event, and what Tesla revealed the week before.

All in ten minutes. Whew.

I can say unequivocally that the best way to travel from Vancouver to Whistler is by helicopter, which is how I got to Whistler last Friday for the London Drugs tech event.

London Drugs tech event at Whistler

Every fall, London Drugs holds an event for their sales staff to learn about the products they’ll be selling in the coming months. Last year, the company invited a handful of tech journalists to join in the fun. I focused my afternoon on cameras and headphones, as those are two of the categories I’m writing for the Globe & Mail’s annual holiday gift guide. Among the highlights:

• Sony’s A7s camera
• Nikon’s J4 camera
• JBL’s Synchros E50 headphones

Thoughts on the iPhone 6 Plus after using it for a week

I’m loving the 5.5-inch screen on the iPhone 6 Plus. For watching videos and playing games, it really does make a difference. And while it’s big in size, it’s not heavy at all.

But I can’t one-hand it, and after years of using iPhones, I’ve grown accustomed to texting, dialing, and operating with only one hand. That’s a common complaint from people who have been using the smaller iPhone for years.

I’m going to stick it out, though. There are a number of excellent Bluetooth headphones now available, and voice activation keeps getting better. Maybe I don’t need to use my hands as much as I thought. Not for dialing a phone, anyway.

Meanwhile, Samsung announces a smaller size Galaxy smartphone

Anyone complaining that Apple’s copying Samsung by coming out with larger format iPhones needs to take note of Samsung’s Alpha, now available in Canada. The Alpha is a smaller version of the Galaxy smartphone, coming in at 4.7 inches, the same size as the iPhone 6, and noticeably smaller than the Galaxy S5.

Tesla announces a faster fancy car that will pick you up

Well, Elon Musk didn’t announce a budget model Tesla at the big announcement last week. The “D” he mentioned in his Tweet referred to the Tesla P85D, which uses a dual electric motor, with the rear motor pushing 470 horsepower and the front giving 221 horsepower. The all-wheel drive car can get to 60 miles per hour in just over three seconds.

The extra thing that Musk also teased was the autonomous driving features that will be added to all Tesla vehicles. They will be able to change lanes safely and to adjust to speed limits using cameras that read signs. And if you are on private property, the car can be programmed to park itself and to pick you up at the front door.

The Tesla P85D will come in three configurations cost around $120,000, depending on model. Delivery in late December.

Here’s the new autopilot features in action.

After talking about Crispin Glover’s performance art readings from back in the ’90s, Drex and I talk about moon landing conspiracies and how NVIDIA has proven them false, and about the amazing Starship Size Comparison Chart.

Then we talk about Elon Musk (Drex schools me on Musk’s history in the tech industry), SpaceX and the future of space flight, and what, exactly, Tesla might be announcing today.

Listen in.

This week we spend the update trying to breathe in the vacuum of space.

Some people call them space taxis

Last week I wrote about Tesla’s planned “autonomous vehicles”. Well Elon Musk is not only the founder of Tesla. He’s also the CEO and chief designer of SpaceX, a private company set up to “revolutionize space technology”.

In 2010, SpaceX sent a spacecraft into low-Earth orbit and in 2012 its Dragon craft attached to the International Space Station. It’s since made regular trips to the ISS on resupply missions. And a couple of weeks ago, NASA announced that in 2017, SpaceX will be flying astronauts as well. Boeing has also been awarded a contract to be a taxi to the stars.

For the past few years, since the retirement of the U.S. Space Shuttle program, all astronauts headed to the ISS have traveled on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Having private companies take care of getting astronauts into orbit around the Earth frees up NASA to tackle the mission to Mars, wrote administrator Charles Bolden.

Spaceships I have known

Ever wanted to know how big Captain Kirk’s Enterprise really was? How about Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon? For over a year, artist Dirk Loechel has been working on a massive work that encompasses nearly all the spacecraft from science fiction and pop culture. To scale.

The Starship Size Comparison Chart includes ships from TV, movies, board and video games, and novels. It would take days to track down all the references.

Loechel recently added the International Space Station to the chart as a real-world comparison.

In your living room, everyone can hear you scream

Yesterday, the latest video game attempting to capitalize on the Aliens brand was released. Alien: Isolation (PS3, PS4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One) was developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. And while last year’s Aliens: Colonial Marines wasn’t worth playing, Isolation does an amazing job of capturing the primal, claustrophobic fear of Ridley Scott’s original 1979 film.

In Isolation you play as Amanda Ripley, who is investigating the disappearance of her mother, Ellen (played by Sigourney Weaver in the films). The game takes place on the space station, Sevastopol, and Amanda is trying to find the flight recorder of the Nostromo. There’s only one alien in the game, but it’s smart, and unpredictable, and has great hearing. You never know when it’s going to appear, and when it does there’s no fighting it. You either find a way to escape or you die.

Moon landing conspiracy theory to rest

In case anyone still believes that the Apollo moon landing was a hoax, NVIDIA, which designs and manufactures graphics cards for use in computers, was able to use the new technology developed for its new GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 cards, to establish, once and for all, that the photographs taken during that mission are consistent with having been taken on the moon.

NVIDIA also used the new graphics cards to power a massive 4K display, bigger than five thousand 30-inch displays.

Drex and I talk about how the new Blackberry Passport is selling and how the secret to its success might lie in India, why concerns over bent iPhone 6 devices is overblown, the newest social networks to launch, and why Drex is so excited about autonomous vehicles, also called driverless cars.