Sunset Overdrive, the punk-rock inspired “awesomepocalypse”, gets players using crazy weapons to kill gibbering creatures while rail grinding through a massive cityscape, and at a press event in Toronto today, I was able to play the first thirty minutes of the game.

Marcus Smith, creative director on the game being developed by Insomniac Games, told me that Sunset is in a final refining phase before being locked down for release on Oct. 28.

From the soundtrack to the sense of humour to the constantly-breaking fourth wall, Sunset Overdrive hits all of my sweet spots. I talked to colleagues who were less excited about the game, but for me the blend of Tony Hawk and Crackdown is exactly right.

Xbox Canada spokesperson Jeff Rivait said in an interview that there are a number of other Xbox One exclusives coming this fall, including racer Forza Horizon 2, platformer Ori and the Blind Forest, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Master Chief Collection filled with Halo

Xbox Canada’s Nicole Fawcette, meanwhile, talked about the “Halo tingle” that comes when she hears the iconic music from the game. The Master Chief Collection packages the four games in the franchise that feature the protagonist, including a remastered version of Halo 2, all for Cdn$69.99.

Certainly it provides a great opportunity for new fans of the franchise who may not have played earlier games in the series. Fawcette said that she talked to many new fans in the hour-long lineups at Fan Expo Canada who had never played Halo 2 before.

It also includes the live-action series, Halo: Nightfall, being produced by Ridley Scott, and provides players with access to the Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta, which Fawcette said would be “a whole new evolution of multiplayer”. The beta begins on December 27 and runs through January 17, 2015.

No comment on Mojang purchase rumour

As for the yestreday’s rumour, that Microsoft was in talks to purchase Mojang, the company that controls the popular Minecraft franchise, Rivait would only say that he couldn’t comment on “rumour and speculation”.

Limited edition Xbox One bundles

In terms of hardware, Rivait said there are two limited edition Xbox Ones that will be available this fall.

One includes a white Xbox One with a standard 500 GB hard drive and a copy of Sunset Overdrive, priced at Cdn $399.

The other, which will retail for Cdn$499, is a custom-designed Call of Duty console with a 1 TB hard drive that has colours and sounds themed around Advanced Warfare.

Other big franchises with Xbox games this fall

Also coming to the Xbox platforms this fall, and on display at X14, included:

• Alien Isolation (Sega)
• Assassin’s Creed: Rogue (Ubisoft)
• Assassin’s Creed: Unity (Ubisoft)
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Activision)
• Disney Fantasia (Disney)
• Disney Infinity 2.0 (Disney)
• The Evil Within (Bethesda)
• Lego Batman 3 (Warner Bros.)
• Skylanders: Trap Team (Activision)

Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight

Long rumoured, Apple’s Watch is a real thing, but it’s not called an “iWatch”. And while it won’t be available until next year, Apple announced the existence of the gadget you wear on your wrist at a media event in San Francisco today.

Apple Watch is designed to work with iPhones (series 5 and 6 running iOS 8, an update rolling out on Sept. 17), so it will display notifications and messages, and is voice activated, so you can dictate notes and take calls. It can also “hand off” calls to your iPhone mid-conversation.

Tim Cook, the company’s CEO, called the gadget “the most personal product we’ve ever made”, and the watch comes in an array of colours, with a variety of straps, and in three models: the entry level Apple Watch, the sporty Apple Watch Sport, and the fashionable Apple Watch Edition.

The new Watch is also key to Apple’s foray into health and fitness hardware and software. Apple Watch has motion sensing capabilities and a heart rate monitor, and tracks calories burned, the amount of “brisk” activity you engage in, and how often you stand up during the day.

iPhone 6 and its bigger brother, iPhone 6 Plus

Meanwhile, the newest iPhones will be available before the end of the month. Available in gold, silver, and “space grey”, pre-orders for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus begin on Sept.12, with the smartphones getting into hands the following week, on Friday, Sept. 19.

Both will run iOS 8 on Apple’s A8 chip and with 64-bit processing, and both have upgrades to the iSight and FaceTime cameras, providing better low-light performance and better frame rates.

And both include the M8, a “motion coprocessor” which collects motion and geographical information from the devices and drive the new Health application that comes with iOS 8 and connects to other health apps and fitness devices users might already be using.

While the Retina HD display on the iPhone 6 is 4.7 inches (with a resolution of 1334 × 750), the iPhone 6 Plus has a 5.5-inch screen (a resolution of 1920 × 1080).

Canadian pricing is as follows:

iPhone 6

• $749 for 16 GB
• $859 for 64 GB
• $969 for 128 GB

iPhone 6 Plus

• $859 for 16 GB
• $969 for 64 GB
• $1079 for 128 GB

Apple Pay, the near-field-communication enabled payment system also announced today, is only rolling out in the United States for now.

Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight

I debuted as the tech guy on Drex’s new CKNW talk radio program, Drex Live last night. Talked about the Samsung Unpacked event in New York, upcoming tech events (like Apple’s on Sept. 9), and tech for getting back to school.

You can listen here. I come in at 7:10.

It’s September 3, and in most of the developed world kids are already back in the classroom. Except here in British Columbia, where teachers are off the job because of some worrying brinkmanship by the provincial government.

Here are some tech tips for everyone else who’s getting back to their desks, whether they are in a classroom, a library, the kitchen table, or a dorm room.

Apps to encourage learning and creation

Even if your kids aren’t in the classroom, they can still be learning. Computers are great learning tools, and Wesley Fryer, a grade 4 and 5 teacher in Oklahoma, has curated a list of 70 apps he’s got loaded on iPads in his school that help drive the learning of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills.

Privacy and security settings on mobile devices

If you’ve got children with mobiles, keep in mind that the GPS functions make it easy for you to find them, but it also means anyone else can find them, too. Get familiar with the privacy settings on your kids’ device. And if you haven’t already, consider locking down the device against kids making purchases without your permission. Here’s how to do it on iOS.

Charging cables

You don’t want to carry around a charging adapter and cable if you don’t have to. Because it’s so easy to find USB ports, all you really need is a Nomad Key, which is a key fob and charging cable all in one. Coming later this fall is a carabiner (not for climbing) that has a charging cable built in. There are Nomad models for nearly every mobile device.

Laptop/tablet dual-mode computers

All the manufacturers making Windows computers are now building laptops that also function as tablets:

• ASUS Transformer Book Flip
• Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series
• HP Envy x360
• Toshiba Satellite P50W Convertible

And there’s always the Microsoft Surface.

Apple’s annual back to school offer

If Apple is the only way, take advantage of the company’s annual offer of a gift card with the purchase of a Mac computer or iPad or iPhone mobile device.

Portable hard-drive storage

USB sticks are fine if you’re printing out a term paper at the library, but if your project is a graphics-heavy presentation or a video, you’ll need more storage space, like what you can get with the latest solid-state portable drives.

This one from Toshiba is less than half an inch thin. And with 128 GB of storage space, there’s plenty of room for music, photos, and videos for when you need some down time.

“Small-in-one” printer

If you really need to have a printer, you want it to do as much as possible and take up as little space as possible. Make way for this colour Epson, which prints photos and documents, and connects wirelessly to computers and mobile devices.

If you think it’s weird using a mobile device as a screen and processor for a virtual reality headset, so did I. But Ken Price, vice president of sales and marketing for Samsung Canada’s mobile division explained to me that Oculus has been using Samsung SG smartphones in their development kits for Oculus Rift.

It’s no surprise, then, that the Gear VR, developed in partnership with Oculus, was built to power off the processor and screen of the new Samsung Galaxy Note 4. With a Quad HD Super AMOLED screen, it’s got the resolution required.

Certainly my brief experience with the headset, I sampled two demos, was on part with my time with the Oculus Rift at E3 in June.

In a conversation, Price told me that the Gear VR will be available this year. It won’t be a massive roll out, he admitted, but there will be units available for early adopters.

The software development kit for the Gear VR is already available to developers, and on Facebook and Twitter today, Fireproof Games announced it is working on a title for the Gear VR. Entitled Omega Agent, it will have players strapping on a “nuclear-powered jetpack”.

Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight