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This week Apple has an update, Xbox backtracks on a price increase, Life in a Day 2020 is internet crowd sourcing at its best, and I played the Resident Evil Village demo, Maiden, so you don’t have to. But first, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the flagship of all flagship Samsung smartphones.

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is made for shooting videos

Samsung’s got three models of the Galaxy S21 smartphone coming, but the Ultra is the flagship. The frame shares the new approach that integrates the camera array on the back into the metal housing, but the Ultra stands out with its glass back and 6.8-inch screen that can hit 120 Hz.

It’s also compatible with the Samsung S Pen stylus, which is a first.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra is equipped with four lenses:

  • 12 MP ultra wide
  • 108 MP wide
  • two 10 MP telephoto lenses, one with a 3x zoom and one with a 10x zoom

The two telephoto lenses have been designed to work together, delivering a zoom that is effectively 100 times.

There’s a laser sensor that is used for auto focus, and you can shoot 4K video at 60 frames per second video using any of the lenses.

The new Director’s View feature that really sets the line of S21 smartphones apart. I played with two different ways of using this. With what Samsung calls “vlogger” view, I was able to shoot split screen, with the front camera capturing our family dog jumping around in the snow, and the rear camera capturing me describing what was going on. You can also do this as a picture-in-picture if you prefer.

Even cooler is the ability to see the scene you’re shooting through all the lenses at the same time. I was filming my son skiing, and the display showed me what it was looking like through all of the lenses, and I was able to switch from the wide to the telephoto just by tapping on the thumbnail view.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is available in three configurations:

  • 12 GB of RAM with 128 GB of storage for $1650 in black or silver
  • 12 GB of RAM with 256 GB of storage for $1720 in black only
  • 16 GB of RAM with 512 GB of storage for $1890 in black only

Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra, Galaxy S21, and Galaxy S21 Plus all ship on Friday. If you pre-order the Galaxy S21 Ultra before tomorrow, January 28, you’ll get a set of the new Galaxy Buds Pro wireless earbuds and a Galaxy SmartTag locator.

Critical update for iPads and iPhones released

When the director of cybersecurity for the Electronic Frontier Foundation tells you to update the operating system on your iPhone, you do as you’re told. And that’s exactly what Eva Galperin did on Tuesday.

Apple’s information about the update to iOS 14.4 and iPadOS 14.4 is prosaic, but it suggests that the operating systems were recently exploited, and until the update is installed on your iPhones and iPads, your device will be vulnerable.

My advice? Be like Eva Galperin.

In abrupt reversal, Xbox Live Gold pricing to remain the same

At six o’clock in the morning last Friday, Microsoft announced it was increasing the price for Xbox Live Gold subscriptions.

By nine o’clock that evening, not only had the company cancelled that plan and pledged to keep pricing the same, Microsoft is also dropping the Xbox Live Gold requirement for free-to-play multiplayer games.

What a difference a little community outcry can make.

The price increase seemed nominal: $1 USD for a one-month subscription, $5 USD for three-month subscription, and $20 USD for a six-month subscription. But the response from gamers was rapid, and the Xbox team at Microsoft knows how important it is to keep people happy, especially with new consoles – the Xbox Series X and Series S – in the world.

The Xbox Live Gold requirement to play games like Fortnite is not going away immediately. The Xbox team said they were, “working hard to deliver this change as soon as possible in the coming months.”

Life in a Day 2020 showcases crowd sourced footage of lives around the world

If you want evidence of how technology has changed our lives, look no further than the documentary films, Life in a Day.

Directed by Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September, Touching the Void) and produced by Ridley Scott, the idea behind the films is to collect submissions from people around the world, all of whom uploaded their footage through the internet.

The first Life in a Day was released in 2011, and back then, Macdonald had some 80,000 clips to comb through.

For Life in a Day 2020, more than 300,000 people submitted videos for consideration, in more than 65 languages. The footage all came from people’s lives on July 25, when the world was grappling with things like the covid-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests were confronting systemic racism and violence against Black, Brown, and other racialised people.

The film will premiere on February 1 as part of the Sundance Film Festival. It begins streaming on YouTube on February 6.

Resident Evil demo sinks gamers into a mansion where the atmosphere is decidedly creepy

The eighth game in the main Resident Evil series is called Village, and it releases on May 7 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

But if you’ve got a PS5 and you’re keen to get a sense of what the experience is going to be like, you can download the free demo now.

It’s called Maiden, and in it you become a poor soul trapped in a dungeon. Your goal is to escape.

The demo will take about twenty minutes, depending on your approach. I found myself crouched in a corner for minutes at a time, dreading what was coming.

In Maiden you’ve got no weapons and there’s no combat. And while you’re moving through the mansion space that is part of Resident Evil Village, you aren’t actually playing the game itself.

It’s plenty creepy, though, and it certainly gives you a sense of what to expect from the game when it comes out on May 7.

The Maiden demo is available for PS5 only, although Capcom says a demo for all platforms will be available this spring.

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This week, supporting Calgary restaurants by cooking with a chef, watching Evil Dead with Bruce Campbell, and brawling in Toronto streets as Scott Pilgrim. But first, details of Samsung’s new Galaxy S21 handsets.

Samsung’s new Galaxy S21 smartphones are available for preorder

Late last week, as the Consumer Electronics Show was coming to a close, Samsung held an online “Galaxy Unpacked” to show off the next generation Galaxy S21 handsets.

There are three models coming to Canada, all of which are available to preorder now for delivery on January 29.

They are all 5G devices and they all sport a new design that incorporates the camera bump into the metal housing.

The S21 and S21 Plus (respectively: 6.2-inch screen starting at $1,130 and 6.7-inch screen starting at $1,400).

The S21 Ultra, meanwhile, is the premium model, with a 6.8-inch screen with an adaptive refresh rate (starting at $1,650 and up to $1,890). It’s got an extra lens in the camera array and is compatible with Samsung’s S Pen.

Pre-ordering a Galaxy S21 Ultra and you get a set of Galaxy Buds Pro and a Galaxy SmartTag, which were also announced at the Samsung event.

The cost for a S21 is actually cheaper – by almost $200 – than the Galaxy S20 handsets released last year. Samsung found some play in the price by reducing the screen resolution on the S21 and S21 Plus, and by reducing the base amount of memory from 12 GB RAM to 8 GB.

Samsung is also packaging the S21 smartphones without earbuds or a wall charger.

Cook with a Chef supports Calgary restaurateurs

Here’s an interesting concept: take a cooking lesson from a renowned chef.

That’s what you get with Cook with a chef, a program connecting the chefs of Calgary’s restaurant scene with people who wish they could visit.

The initiative comes from Julie Van Rosendaal, a Calgary-based cookbook author and journalist.

The recipe and ingredient list – as well as wine pairing suggestions – are sent to participants in advance of the online cooking class.

And you only need one ticket per household, so you and your housemates, or significant others, or families, can all take part in the fun.

The classes with Jenny B from Jane Bond BBQ and with Chris Wong from Gorilla Whale are already sold out, but there are six others starting January 27 and running through February that you can still get in on.

They include Colin Metcalfe from Sidewalk Citizen, Judy Wood from the Lougheed House and Meez Cuisine, Paul Rogalski and Dean Fast from Rouge, Merritt Gordon from Dandy Brewing, and Andy Fennell from Cafe Gravity.

Watch Evil Dead with Bruce Campbell

Evil Dead, the 1981 film directed by Sam Raimi, produced by Rob Tapert, and starring Bruce Campbell, has a storied reputation in indie film.

This Saturday, January 23, you can watch the film online with Campbell hosting a viewing party in which he will “share memories, behind the scenes stories, [and] anecdotes from the film.”

Campbell was also a co-executive producer of the film, which sparked careers for Raimi, who would go on to direct a series of Spider-Man films, Tapert, who would produce the TV show, Xena Warrior Princess, and Campbell himself.

Tickets are $25 USD per device, so you can gather your household bubble to scream – and laugh – and the horror film that changed perceptions of what a horror film could be.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World video game re-release brings brawling back to Toronto streets

Gamers were thrilled last year to learn that Ubisoft would re-release the video game adaptation of Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game, Complete Edition is now available for Nintendo Switch, PS4/5, Stadia, Windows, and Xbox One/Series X. It includes the add-on content that lets you play as Knives Chau and Wallace Wells.

The side-scrolling brawler’s 10th anniversary was last year, and it’s just as charming as it was back in 2010. You can battle as Scott or as other characters including Ramona Flowers, Kim Pine, and Stephen Stills, and each character has distinct attacks and supers.

You can upgrade the skills of these characters as you play, and visit stores and shops in the environment to get boosts from things that you buy with money you pick up along the way. These items include all the things interesting to a twenty-something finding their way in the big city, like concert t-shirts and nachos.

As with the original comic by Canadian Bryan Lee O’Malley and the film adaptation directed by Edgar Wright and starring Michael Cera, the story of Scott Pilgrim is set in Toronto, and the city circa 2010 is honestly represented in the game with locations that include TTC underground platforms and stand-ins for venues like Lee’s Palace and Sneaky Dee’s.

This game is almost as popular because of its soundtrack by Anamanaguchi, the pop band that incorporates video game hardware into their instrumentation to create music that’s referred to as “chiptune” or “bitpop” because of its pixellated sound.

Anamanaguchi’s energetic music is perfect for the game, providing the perfect syncopation for beating up all the nasties that get in your way.

You can play with up to three friends, locally or online, and this is how the game is best enjoyed. More than a nostalgia trip, Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game, Complete Edition is twitchy brawling fun.

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This week, updates from CES 2021 and all the recent news from Lucasfilm Games, including new Star Wars and Indiana Jones games. But first, Trump’s lost his soapbox and Parler looks to be gone, too.

De-platforming Donald Trump

He’s off Facebook. And Instagram. And Snapchat. And Twitter. And Twitch.

It’s permanent for Twitter, a ban for an undefined length of time from Facebook and Instagram.

Related interest groups in other platforms are also being shut down, including Reddit (“r/DonaldTrump” has been banned) and PayPal and Shopify.

Stripe, which had been processing payments for the Trump campaign, has cancelled the account.

Axios has the full list., which includes information on what other private companies are doing in response to the insurrection in Washington last week.

Social media platform Parler has an uncertain future

Parler, the social media company that built a business on lax moderation, went offline on Monday, and Deadline reports that CEO John Matze says that multiple vendors and a law firm “ditched us on the same day”.

The app has been removed from Apple’s AppStore and the Google Play store, and Amazon Web Services, which had been providing the servers and hosting for the company, has suspended the account after “repeated violations” of the terms of service. The AWS Trust & Safety Team had, apparently, been warning Parler that this might happen for some time.

On top of all this, web archivists have managed to download a substantial portion of the Parler database because the system was so poorly developed. That includes posts, images, videos, as well as user information.

All of this will now be open information and available to any law enforcement agency who wants to use it.

What’s going on at CES 2021

The online-only trade show is a little subdued this year, but there’s still stuff going on.

You can visit LG’s CES booth yourself.

TVs

  • LG’s new OLED line are the B1, C1, G1, and Z1. The C1 gets an 83-inch model, the G1 is ultra thin and mounts nearly flush with your wall, and the Z1 is 8K and up to 88 inches.
  • The LG OLED settings includes a single location for settings important to gamers, and includes a setting that automatically tweaks things depending on what genre of game you’re playing.
  • TCL is updating the 6-Series collection to 8K video and introducing the XL Collection of 85-inch displays.

Monitors

  • Acer’s Predator XB323QK NV gaming monitor is 4K HDR with a 31.5-inch screen while the XB273U NX, 27-inch, 1440 pixel display with an overclocked refresh rate of 275 Hz.
  • Alienware’s neatly designed M15 and M17 R4 are being upgraded with Nvidia’s RTX 30 series of graphics processors.
  • Asus has a line of monitors, including the ROG Swift PG32UQ, with HDMI 2.1 ports which makes them ideal for computer gaming or if you want to hook up a PS5 or Xbox Series X to get 4K resolution and up to 120 frames per second.
  • LG is releasing an OLED monitor, the UltraFine Display OLED Pro, a 4K HDR monitor intended for professionals like video editors and photographers.

Computers

  • Acer’s Predator Triton 300 SE includes the latest Intel and Nvidia chips and comes in at under four pounds. In a refresh, the Predator Helios 300 gets Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3070 or 3080 for graphics and a 240 Hz display.
  • Asus is updating the Republic of Gamers Zephyrus G14 and G15 with updated AMD and Nvidia chips, and is adding an option to upgrade the displays resolution and refresh rate.

Appliances

  • LG’s InstaView refrigerator has a window that clears when you knock on the door, giving you a view of the contents without needing to open the door. You can get ice that is cubed, crushed, or round (called “craft”), and there’s a UV light that sanitizes the water dispenser nozzle to keep it free from bacteria.

Lucasfilm Games brand renewed for Star Wars video games

Lucasfilm Games is back. Kind of.

The original Lucasfilm Games was created by George Lucas in 1982. Originally, the studio was making games from original ideas and after being renamed as LucasArts in 1990, it was where formative adventure games like The Secret of Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle, and Grim Fandango. Knights of the Old Republic, a role-playing game set in the Star Wars universe and developed by BioWare, was released in 2003.

Lucasfilm Games isn’t being reborn as a development studio, but as a brand that will centralize the development, promotion, and publicity of games from the Star Wars universe.

This week’s announcement about the “new era” makes it clear games will be “developed in collaboration with the finest studios across the industry.”

There are new accounts on Facebook and Twitter, so if you’re looking to get the inside track on Star Wars games, you know where to go.

That news was followed up today with an announcement that Ubisoft’s Massive Entertainment in Sweden is creating an open-world Star Wars game.

EA will still be making Star Wars games for Lucasfilm Games, but it appears that any exclusivity is now gone.

Indiana Jones video game in development at Machine Games

Bethesda studio Machine Games is another group working with Lucasfilm Games. Yesterday, Bethesda announced that renowned game designer Todd Howard will be executive producing the game, which will have an original story.

Machine Games has most recently made three accomplished first-person shooter games in the Wolfenstein series.

Given that Microsoft owns Bethesda, I suspect that this may be an Xbox exclusive, but there was no mention of platforms or release date.

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