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This week, the new Xbox console coming in the fall of 2020 has a name, Halo: Reach has been added to the Master Chief Collection, and the Game Awards entrenches video games as culture. But first, news of a data breach of health information of Canadians and how hackers are harassing Ring camera owners.

LifeLabs paid ransom to hackers in data breach affecting up to 15 million Canadians

In late October, hackers accessed a database for LifeLabs, a Canadian provider of medical testing services.

Customer information including names, addresses, email addresses, logins, passwords, dates of birth, health card numbers, and lab test results were all vulnerable.

The company, which is based in B.C., revealed this week that it paid a ransom. President and CEO Charles Brown phrased it a different way, writing in a letter to customers that LifeLabs took several measures to protect our customer information, including retrieving the data by making a payment..

Of course, just because a ransom was paid does nothing. That data could have – probably was – copied.

LifeLabs is offering a year of free protection to any customer concerned about the breach.

Ring Cameras prove vulnerable to hackers who are watching owners and harassing them

Motherboard reported this month about a podcast that plays recordings and livestreams of hackers accessing Ring cameras and interacting with owners.

It’s adolescent prank call culture amped up by technology and a lack of empathy.

Ring, which is owned by Amazon and sells home security products including video cameras and camera-enabled doorbells, has claimed that the reason hackers have been able to access people’s devices is because they were using usernames and passwords for their Ring accounts that had been used elsewhere and exposed.

In other words, users are responsible for the problem.

While it’s true that you should have unique passwords for your various accounts, and you should enable two-factor authentication at all times, putting the burden of security entirely on the user is not good business practice.

And in a follow-up to his story about the NulledCast podcast, Motherboard’s Joseph Cox discovered that there’s lots more that Ring could do to protect user accounts. Ring’s security is “awful” he wrote.

The Game Awards 2019 celebrates video game culture

With an opening performance of Death Stranding, their song for the video game by Chvrches, the Game Awards 2019 established itself as a premiere event, with performances by Green Day and Grimes and appearances by actor Lindsey Wagner and Golden State Warrior and NBA MVP Steph Curry.

The event has always been a celebration of video games, featuring premieres of new games, appearances by prominent figures in the industry, as well as recognition of popular and successful games.

Among the winners were:

  • Game of the Year and Best Action/Adventure Game: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, developed by From Software and published by Activision
  • Best Action Game: Devil May Cry 5, developed and published by Capcom
  • Best Family Game: Luigi’s Mansion 3, developed by Vancouver’s Next Level Games and published by Nintendo
  • Game Direction: Death Stranding, developed by Kojima Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment

One of the surprises was the world premiere of Ninja Theory’s next game, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. It’s a sequel to the sleeper hit of 2017 – Hellblade – Senua’s Sacrifice – that so impressed Xbox’s Phil Spencer that he made arrangements to acquire the studio.

The protagonist of these games, the titular Senua, suffers from psychosis, and the developers at Ninja Theory took great care in creating an experience that simulates what that might be like by conducting research with scientists and people afflicted with mental illness.

The next Microsoft game console is the Xbox Series X

During the Game Awards, Xbox head Phil Spencer revealed the name of what’s previously been known only as Project Scarlet.

The new console from Microsoft, to be released next holiday season, is called Xbox Series X. The design of the new console was also unveiled. It looks like a small computer tower. It’s solid black with a small Xbox logo, and can be placed horizontally or vertically.

Pricing and a specific release date haven’t been announced, and the final specs haven’t been revealed, but Spencer promises that the Series X will provide 4K video at 60 frames per second, and will be capable of delivering 8K video.

It will also be backwards compatible, allowing owners to play Xbox One games.

And Halo Infinite is expected to be a launch title.

Halo Reach has been added to the Master Chief Collection

Speaking of Halo, the Master Chief Collection includes nearly all of the first-person shooter games in the Halo franchise, including the game that started it all, Halo 2, Halo 3, ODST, Halo 4, and now also includes Halo: Reach, which has been updated with 4K visuals.

That game details the events the precede the first game, Halo: Combat Evolved, and was the final Halo game developed by Bungie.

If you really want a good deal, consider an Xbox Game Pass subscription, which gives you access to over 100 games on your Xbox or Windows computer for CAN$12 a month.

An Ultimate subscription costs $200 a year, but includes your Xbox Live Gold subscription (itself $12 a month) and gives you access to games on both console and computer.

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This week on The Shift with Drex, I talked about the flight of the world’s first electric airplane by Harbour Air, Finger Food Advanced Technology Group and its tech solutions, Montreal’s Cloud Chamber studio working on the next BioShock game, MLB The Show coming to game platforms other than Playstation, and the must-have Nintendo Switch title of the fall, Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield.

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This week, Bluetooth bra fittings, the new Bioshock game is being made in Montreal, Sony will help make baseball games for consoles other than PlayStation, and the delight of the new Pokémon games for Nintendo’s Switch. But first, the first electric airplane has flown.

World’s first electric airplane takes flight in Vancouver

We’ve got electric cars and trucks and motorbikes, there are electric-powered boats on the water, and now even airplanes are going electric.

This week, Harbour Air conducted a test flight of its ePlane, a six-passenger de Havilland Beaver equipped with an electric engine.

Harbour plans to convert its entire fleet to electric. It currently has more than 40 aircraft.

The engine comes from magniX, based in the Seattle area, a company created to develop electric propulsion systems for aircraft.

Port Coquitlam’s Finger Food uses technology to help consumers get what they need

A technology company in Port Coquitlam, B.C. is “redefining the way humans interact with machines” and providing Canadian retailers with innovative methods to helping customers.

Finger Food Advanced Technology Group has expertise in augmented and virtual reality, robotics, and artificial intelligence, and this year completed two projects that demonstrated what they can do.

For Lululemon, Finger Food created Bluetooth sensors that are used in stores during bra fittings. With the sensors in place, the customer runs on a treadmill and information on breast movement is recorded, and that “unique breast movement profile” is used by store staff to provide a recommendation on the best sports bra for the customer.

The challenge for Mountain Equipment Coop was finding a way to show customers the range of options available in tents. Stores can’t display all the tents they sell; there’s just not enough space. So Finger Food scanned all the products and created virtual models of them, and now people can explore the tent they’re interested in using an augmented reality experience wherever they are.

Video game news: New Montreal studio working on next BioShock game, Sony’s MLB games coming to other platforms

Montreal’s new studio

The last game in 2K Games’ BioShock franchise was Infinite, released in 2013. This week, the video game publisher announced that a new game was being developed by Cloud Chamber, a new studio with locations in the San Francisco area and Montreal.

Kelley GIlmore, who has extensive experience with Firaxis, another 2K studio, will head up Cloud Chamber. She’s hired Ken Schachter to manage the Montreal location.

2K was frank about the fact that the “decision to open a new office in Montreal was supported” by financial incentives provided by the city and by the provincial government of Quebec.

Official MLB video games branching out

For years, Sony’s PlayStation platforms have had the exclusive rights to baseball video games. That changes “as early as 2021” according to a press release issued this week by Major League Baseball, the MLB Players Association, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and San Diego Studio, which has been developing MLB The Show since 2006.

While Sony retains the license for MLB and the MLBPA, “the historic expansion of the long-standing partnerships will bring MLB The Show, for the first time ever, to additional console platforms beyond PlayStation platforms”.

Specific details haven’t been announced, but it’s likely that Sony will sub-license the development of the game on other systems.

Everybody’s playing nicely these days.

Pokémon Sword and Shield worthy games for Nintendo’s Switch

Christmas came early to my kids this year in the form of the new Pokémon video game for the Nintendo Switch console. As with most games in the series, this one comes in two editions, Sword and Shield.

We got the Shield edition, because one of my Pokémon trainers wanted to battle a gym leader who was a ghost-type specialist.

Having differnt gym encounters, which are the franchise’s boss battles, is one way that the two editions differ. The other is in the roster of wild pokémon to be collected, and in the legendary characters that are available: Zacian is exclusive to Sword and Zamazenta is exclusive to Shield.

You can get those other pokémon in your copy of the game by trading with other players, and playing with your friends is also supported by the Wild Area, a region in the game where co-operative battles and multiplayer raids can happen. It’s a welcome addition that gives a freshness to the game and extends playability.

The two most appealing new features, though, are the ability to skip tutorials and the abolition of random encounters. Instead of never knowing where or when you were going to be attacked, now you can choose when and where to engage in a battle with a wild pokémon because these encouters are marked on the map.

Inside of a week, both my kids were well into the game, taking turns to progress using their own profiles on the Switch. They both remarked on how much they like the high-res graphics that are possible on the Switch, and the design of the Galar Region, based on Great Britain, in which the game is set.

They also appreciated the control modifications that made the game easier to play, and the battles more fun.

And while one kid is nearing the eighth and final gym, these games are eminently replayable, so there’s lots more fun to be had.

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