This week on The Shift with Drex, I talked about the announcement of Apple’s second generation iPhone SE, the run on webcams, Andrea Bocelli’s Easter Sunday performance on YouTube, the video game In Other Waters, Sony’s Play at Home initiative, and the PS5 DualSense controller.
This week, webcams are a hot ticket item, Bocelli’s Music for Hope, exploring an alien ocean In Other Waters, free games for your PS4 from Sony, and the DualSense controller for the upcoming PS5 console. But first, Apple’s announced the second generation iPhone SE.
Apple announces new iPhone SE packed with power and affordability
The SE model is Apple’s more affordable iPhone, and while it doesn’t have all of the fancy features of the iPhone 11 line, it’s still equipped with Apple’s A13 Bionic chip, the same one that’s in the iPhone 11 Pro, which brings power and battery life to the handset.
And for many people, the iPhone SE is more than enough. It’s equipped with Touch ID, wireless charging, and a 4.7-inch Retina display. It’s got a 12-megapixel camera and can shoot 4K video with high dynamic range (HDR).
There are three hard drive sizes to choose from: 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB.
The smartphone will be available in three colours: white, black, and (Product)Red. Preorders for the iPhone SE begin on Friday.
Where, oh where, have the webcams all gone?
Have you been trying, unsuccessfully, to buy a webcam?
This is presumably because of all the videoconferencing that has become the norm, and because not everyone has a computer with a decent webcam built in.
Easter Sunday concert by Andrea Bocelli a moving performance for our time
On Sunday, Italian singer Andrea Bocelli performed Music for Hope.
The incredible performance took place at the Duomo cathedral of Milan. The stunning gothic church was empty save for Bocelli and an organist. He sang four songs inside the building, and the production was excellent.
The 25-minute performance ended with a rendition of “Amazing Grace”. Bocelli walked down the main aisle of the empty cathedral to stand on the front steps so he could sing to the world. The last segment included haunting footage showing the empty streets of New York and Paris.
In Other Waters turns you into a scientist on another planet
New to the Nintendo Switch is this curious game, In Other Waters (Jump Over the Age). It’s set on an alien planet, and your job is to assist a scientist who is in a dive suit and at the bottom of an ocean.
The game is all played through an interface that is like something you’d find in a Star Trek tricorder. You use the various tools to navigate through the ocean, collect samples, and come to know and classify a new world of living creatures. Just like a real scientist.
Along the way you will get to know the scientist you’re helping, Ellery Vas, her story, and the larger story of the planet you’re on.
In Other Waters is unique and compelling, providing an unforgettable experience of exploration.
Play At Home with Sony means free games and funds for indie developers
Sony announced this week the Play at Home initiative in response to worldwide physical distancing due to COVID-19.
Starting today and until May 5, you can download four PS4 games for free, and to keep:
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
Journey
The first three games are all packaged in the Nathan Drake Collection from Naughty Dog. (If you’re a Playstation Plus subscriber, you can also get Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.)
The last game comes from Thatgamecompany, an indie developer that also created Flower.
This initiative also includes a $10 million fund to support other independent video game developers survive the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
First look at Playstation 5 controller, the DualSense
While The Last of Us Part II and Marvel’s Iron Man VR have been delayed, we’re still hoping that the PS5 console is on track for release this holiday season.
While bigger in size than the DualShock – there’s a lot more tech in this controller – the DualSense has a more streamlined look to it, while preserving the same button, trigger, and joystick configuration of earlier Playstation controllers.
What’s been added is haptic feedback to deliver more nuanced experiences, including adaptive triggers which are able to make it feel like it’s more difficult to pull the trigger as your in-game avatar draws a bow.
The DualSense also has a built-in microphone so you don’t have to plug in a headset if you don’t want to (or don’t have to!).
The controller also has a slick two-tone colour scheme, black on white, with LED lights surrounding the touch pad.
This week on The Shift with Drex, I talked about the stupid conspiracy theory suggesting 5G causes COVID-19 (to be clear: it doesn’t), Dyson’s new Corrale hair straightening iron, virtual travel experiences, LeVar Burton and Patrick Stewart’s online readings, and the video games Nioh 2 and Spyder.
This week, Dyson’s new hair-care product, the Corrale straightener, how you can experience travel without leaving home, enjoy being read to by Geordie Laforge and Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and playing Nioh 2 and Spyder. But first, can you believe that people actually think that 5G has something to do with the coronavirus pandemic?
No, 5G is not causing COVID-19 for chrissakes
Don’t know where this idea came from, but it counts up there with among the dumbest. (for good primers on the ridiculousness, look to Slate and BuzzFeed).
Poles and towers with 5G equipment on them are being set aflame by dumbasses in the UK.
Google has banned all advertising on content that claims a link between the mobile network technology and the pandemic and Facebook is removing posts that claim a link.
Dyson has a new product to help you style your hair
The new thing people are doing while staying home is cutting each others hair.
That seems very risky to me. Also semi-permanent.
Instead, why don’t you style the hair of people in your household? Dyson’s new Corrale straightener ($650) can help.
While Dyson’s Airwrap styler can curl your hair with only air, the straightener requires heat. But Dyson says it’s heating system means that you should be able to get the same styling results with much less heat. The Corrale has three different heat settings and flexible plates.
But what makes it really great? It can be used cordless, providing up to 30-minutes of cord-free use before needing to be recharged.
The Dyson Corrale straightener is available now.
Virtual travel experiences to get your head out of your home
The National Theatre in London is showing plays and the Berlin Philharmonic is giving away 30-day passes to watch performances.
You can visit Volcanoes National Park and Bryce Canyon are in there. A
And you can tour street art from the world’s urban centres, the Vatican Museum (including the Sistine Chapel), and the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian.
Settle in, get comfy, and let LeVar Burton and Patrick Stewart read to you
Actor and host of Reading Rainbow LeVar Burton is doing three reading sessions a week streaming from his Twitter account, one for children, one for young adults, and one for adults.
Meanwhile, at his Twitter, Patrick Stewart is, every day, reading a Shakespearean sonnet. In case you were wondering, there are 154 of those. Enough for nearly half a year.
Nioh 2 is the sword fighting action game you need right now
To be clear, you’ll use many more martial weapons that swords when playing Nioh 2, the new action game developed by Team Ninja for the PS4. But there are so many different types that it’s just easier to say, “swords”.
I actually had more fun using the kusarigama which has a sickle-like blade and a heavy ball separated by a metal chain that can be used in close but also at a distance.
Set in feudal Japan, this is actually a prequel to the 2017 action RPG, Nioh. As with that first game, spirits and demons from Japanese folklore populate the game. What’s different here is that those mythical creatures also influence your ability to fight.
You get to create your own character here, and while you’ll have fun wielding all those different weapons you won’t have an easy time of it. Nioh 2 is definitely in the category of games that require you to practice and figure out how to defeat the creatures that stand in your way.
It’s ideal for these days when we have a bit more time at home than we’re used to.
Cute, compelling Spyder a challenging pastime
New to Apple Arcade is this fun and quirky action game, Spyder in which you play Agent 8, a robotic spider, who solves environmental puzzles while trying to thwart the plans of an evil criminal organization.
The game comes from Sumo Digital and it will take you a bit of time to get a feel for how to move Agent 8 and use its various tools and gizmos. This may have the look of a cutesy game, but the challenges you’ll face are not simple.
It’s got the tone of Roger Moore’s James Bond, with colours and animation that pop with a bit of over saturation, and the sense of scale is really curious. You’re a miniature robot, after all.
The game is designed to be played across all Apple devices, including computers, iPads, iPhones, and even Apple TVs. That means that it responds to touch controls, but you’ll find it easier to play using a game controller
You can play Spyder with an Apple Arcade subscription ($6 a month).
This week on The Shift with Drex, I talked about the problems with Zoom and alternatives for video conferencing, movies that showed at the Banff Mountain Film Festival that you can watch for free, free Radiohead concert films (and more), early release for Onward on Disney+, the killer VR app that is Half Life: Alyx, and Ori and the Will of the Wisps.
The Mind Control Division is the intelligence arm of Blaine Kyllo's Solo Corps Creative Incorporated. This department conducts investigations and experiments into media and technology culture.
