A new iPhone app developed for the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto is giving kids some degree of control over their treatment. The concept behind Pain Squad: Special Police Unit is that patients are recruited by an investigative force that hunts down pain. According to Jennifer Stinson, it’s a way of getting kids to regularly complete entries in a pain diary—not an easy task when a child is weak and discouraged because of their illness and treatment regimens. Read more

I was one of a handful of journalists invited to the set for Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, the web series that filmed in Vancouver in May. Here are my interviews with Daniel Cudmore, the actor playing Master Chief, and Tom Green, playing Thomas Laskey, an important character being introduced to the Halo universe.

Also: director Stewart Hendler and three representatives from 343 Industries, the division of Microsoft Game Studios that manages the Halo franchise, Kevin Grace, Matt McClosky, and Frank O’Connor.

I’ve also got footage of some stunts being performed by Cudmore, an explanation from special effects shop Legacy about how the Master Chief armour was created, scenes of the cadets on the move, and shots of the Weta Workshop-created Warthog during filming.

There’s something futuristic about Simon Fraser University’s campus on Burnaby Mountain. It’s been used as a location for The X-Files, for various Stargate television shows, and now as an alien world for Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn.

Here’s my look at the web series that ran in the Georgia Straight

In early May, the Internet was abuzz with rumours that a live-action Halo production was filming at Simon Fraser University. The last time Microsoft’s popular video game franchise was talked about in this context was when a feature film, to be directed by Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson, was cancelled—sorry, “indefinitely postponed”—in 2006. When asked what was up by Kotaku on May 2, SFU officials simply issued a statement that something called “Sleeper” was shooting in the concrete jungle.

In the Globe & Mail very early this morning, my article looking at Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn published. I had been invited to visit the set for the production in May, but everything I learned there was under embargo until midnight.

Ever since Master Chief was introduced to the world, in the 2001 video game Halo: Combat Evolved, fans have been waiting to know who the enigmatic character really was. Now we know: The man behind the mask is Canadian actor Daniel Cudmore.

Opus Vancouver has had iPads in its guest rooms for some time. Now the hotel is providing guests with an iPhone that they can use locally for phone calls and to navigate the city.

I helped Duncan McCue, of CBC’s The National, understand why that’s such a good idea.