This week, Twitter delays a plan to delete dormant accounts, Columbia’s new Star Wars parkas, and Sony’s PlayStation turns 25. But first, the founders of Google are stepping down from their management roles of Alphabet.

Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page step down from Alphabet management roles

In a surprise move on Tuesday (December 3), Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the two who founded Google and birthed a tech empire, announced that they were giving up their roles as president and CEO, respectively, of Alphabet.

That was the company created in 2015 to be an umbrella over Google, YouTube, and the other tech products and services like Maps, Chrome, Google Cloud, and Waymo.

In a letter published at the Google blog, the two wrote, We’ve never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there’s a better way to run the company.”

The two haven’t been in the public eye lately, and analysts that follow the company aren’t as suprised by this move as the rest of the world.

And the two aren’t going anywhere. “We are deeply committed to Google and Alphabet for the long term, and will remain actively involved as Board members, shareholders and co-founders,” they wrote. “In addition, we plan to continue talking with Sundar regularly, especially on topics we’re passionate about!”

In a release announcing that he was now the CEO of Google and Alphabet, Sundar Pichai was quoted as saying, “I’m excited about Alphabet and its long term focus on tackling big challenges through technology. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with Larry and Sergey in our new roles. Thanks to them, we have a timeless mission, enduring values, and a culture of collaboration and exploration. It’s a strong foundation on which we will continue to build.”

This is also a time of scrutiny of Alphabet and its companies. While YouTube is challenged to reign in unacceptable content, Google is under threat by its own employees who are reacting to the businesses it works with and issues of endemic sexual harrassment.

The combined net worth of Brin and Page is reported to be more than $100 billion dollars.

Twitter pauses plan to reclaim Twitter handles

Last week, Twitter announced that it was going to start reclaiming dormant accounts. But the company was alerted to a use case they hadn’t considered and they’ve since postponed the plan.

The purge was to begin this month, but when Twitter was asked how it would handle memorial accounts, which are accounts created by people who have died that are kept open in the interest of history and posterity, company representatives admitted they hadn’t considered that.

“We’ve heard you on the impact that this would have on the accounts of the deceased,” the company said in a statement. “This was a miss on our part. We will not be removing any inactive accounts until we create a new way for people to memorialize accounts.”

Clearing out accounts that aren’t being used is good and proper maintenance, and has been a long time in coming, so once they’ve figured out how to identify and preserve the memorial accounts, this will happen.

The company isn’t trying to take anything away from users and they’ve been clear that you don’t have to be actively posting to keep your account if you only use it to lurk. All you need to do is log in with your username and password to keep the registration active.

If you want to keep accounts like this active, all you need to do is set a reminder to log in to them every six months.

New Star Wars parkas from Columbia will keep you warm, dry, and let you show your allegiance

Whether you side with the Rebels or the Empire, if you’re a Star Wars fan, Columbia’s got a winter jacket for you. Just in time for Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker.

The new Challenger Jackets, which go on sale at 9 p.m. PT this Friday (December 6), are priced at $249 CAN. They come in black, for the Imperialists, and in grey, for the Rebels. Each style also has a chest patch with the appropriate corresponding insignia.

The jackets feature details in Aurebesh, the primary language of the universe, including the ID numbers for Luke Skywalker’s X-wing fighter and the Death Star.

They are also fully featured Columbia jackets that are both waterproof and breathable, and with multiple pockets and an adjustable hood.

It’s the 25th anniversary of PlayStation

Sony is celebrating 25 years of play.

On December 3, 1994, the first PlayStation console was released for sale in Japan. A quarter of a century later, the gaming business is one of Sony’s most robust and consistent. The PS2 sold over 150 million units and the PS4 is closing in on 103 million.

The PlayStation 5 console is only a year away, and some of the best games of the past decade are exclusive to the platform, including the Last of Us, God of War, and Uncharted franchises, and games like Horizon Zero Dawn and Marvel’s Spider-Man that are expected to have sequels.

PlayStation changed the video game industry.

Game Informer has a great feature on the history of PlayStation in the words of the people who were there, including Ken Kutaragi, who was tasked with building the video game business within Sony.

Originally, the first console was going to be the Nintendo PlayStation. But at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1991, Nintendo surprised everyone by announcing that it would partner with Philips instead.

There’s also a 30-minute documentary on the early days from Polygon.

This week on The Shift with Drex, I talked about the upcoming release of Samsung’s Galaxy Fold handset, Sacha Baron Cohen’s speech about social media, Tim Berners-Lee’s Contract for the Web, and WiZ LED light bulbs.

This week, Sacha Baron Cohen provides a crystal rationale on the need for regulation of the “Silicon Six” products and services, Tim Berners-Lee is calling for governments and companies to sign the Contract for the Web (which he invented), and WiX LED lightbulbs are an easy way to get in on smart lighting in your home. But first, Samsung is ready to show you the Galaxy Fold smartphone. Are you ready to try it?

Get your own hands-on experience with Samsung’s folding smartphone

Samsung has done some redesigning on its Galaxy Fold device, and the company wants you to try it out for yourself.

Starting December 6, you can visit the Samsung Experience Store closest to you for a chance to get hands on with the folidng smartphone.

If you really like it, you’ll be able to purchase one for yourself at the cost of $2,600.

And to guard against any further catastrophes from people using the device, everyone purchasing a Galaxy Fold will also get Samsung’s Galaxy Fold Premier Service, “including Fold Concierge and a screen replacment offer”.

When open, the Galaxy Fold has a 7.3-inch display. The cover display is 4.6 inches. The smartphone has a dual-lens camera on the front and a triple-lens camera on the back.

There are three Samsung Experience Stores in the Greater Toronto Area, one at West Edmonton Mall, and one at Metrotown in Burnaby.

Sacha Baron Cohen schools us on the real dangers of social media

Last week, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen was presented with the International Leadership Award by the Anti-Defamation League, an organization founded to stop anti-Semitism that has extended its mandate to include cyberhate, bullying, and “contempt for anyone who is different”.

The award is given to “exceptional individuals who combine professional success with a profound personal commitment to community involvement and to crossing borders and barriers with a message of diversity and equal opportunity.”

Cohen’s scintillating keynote address has gone viral.

In it, he talks about how the “Silicon Six” – Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin, YouTube’s Susan Wojcicki, and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey – are “imposing their vision on the rest of the world, unaccountable to any government and acting like they’re above the reach of law.”

These platforms are, Cohen suggests, “the greatest propaganda machine in history,” invoking a headline in Haaretz that wondered what the Nazi propaganda machine would have done had it access to such tools.

“Freedom of speech is not freedom of reach,” Cohen says. He’s right in calling for regulation of this medium.

Inventor of World Wide Web has a plan to make it a more positive place

Tim Berners-Lee is the guy who created the internet as we know it. And he’s worried.

In an interview with the Guardian, he said, “I think people’s fear of bad things happening on the internet is becoming, justifiably, greater and greater. If we leave the web as it is, there’s a very large number of things that will go wrong. We could end up with a digital dystopia if we don’t turn things around. It’s not that we need a 10-year plan for the web, we need to turn the web around now.”

To drive that effort, he facilitated the development of a Contract for the Web, which puts forward nine principles, three for governments, three for companies, and three for citizens:

• Ensure everyone can connect to the internet
• Keep all of the internet available, all of the time
• Respect and protect people’s fundamental online privacy and data rights
• Make the internet affordable and accessible to everyone
• Respect and protect people’s privacy and personal data to build online trust
• Develop technologies that support the best in humanity and challenge the worst
• Be creators and collaborators on the Web
• Build strong communities that respect civil discourse and human dignity
• Fight for the Web

Companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google are signatories to the contract. For whatever that’s worth.

WiZ LEDs make it easier to experiment with smart lighting at home

I’ve been lucky to get a chance to play around with programmable and connected LED bulbs over the years. But not everyone can justify the expense.

Well, the new WiZ bulbs are only $20, and as they are LED they’ll last a long time.

The other thing that makes them great for people who are just getting in to smart home tech is that you don’t need a piece of hardware to act as a bridge or hub. These bulbs connect directly to your Wi-fi network and you use a smartphone app to configure them.

They can also be used with Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri.

This week on The Shift with Drex, I talked about the multiplayer gaming experiences to be had at Sandbox VR, Valve’s new VR game Half-Life: Alyx, the release of Minecraft Earth, gaming hardware deals for Black Friday, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

This week is one for gamers everywhere, with news about a new Half-Life game, early access to Minecraft Earth, deals on gaming hardware for Black Friday, and a look at Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Valve announces new Half-Life game for VR

For a decade, gamers who are old enough to have played Valve’s sci-fi Half-Life games have been waiting to see if the developer and publisher would ever return to the world.

This week, the company announced Half-Life: Alyx, a game made for virtual reality.

The title certainly refers to Alyx Vance, the capable hacker and freedom fighter from Half-Life 2: Episode Two, who acts as a support and guide of sorts to players, who take on the guise of Gordon Freeman.

Alyx will be distributed on Valve’s Steam VR service, which likely makes the game playable for players with any of the Windows-based VR systems, including Oculus or Vive, which Valve developed with partner HTC.

Valve Index is the company’s own VR hardware, which is only available in the U.S. and costs $1,000 USD.

Half-Life: Alyx will be revealed in more detail Thursday, November 21 at 10 a.m. PT

Minecraft Earth now available in Canada and the U.S.

The augmented reality game for mobile devices that let’s you find and place Minecraft blocks in your environment is now available in Canada.

The game is in early access, which means it’s not available everywhere yet. The developers at Mojang are adding more regions each week, slowly building the user base.

Minecraft Earth is similar to Pokemon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite in that you collect things and discover experiences in the real world. Microsoft’s Azure Spatial Anchor technology means that you can share experiences with other people in the same meatspace as you.

You can also fight hostiles and craft items that you might need.

Minecraft Earth is free and available for Android and iOS devices.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are coming with smoking deals on video game stuff

We’ve got another year before new video game consoles will be released, and the prices on systems is looking very appealing right now.

All three of the main players have systems and bundles on sale for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so it’s a great opportunity to get some early gift shopping done, for your besties or even yourself.

Nintendo

Deals start on November 28.

• Nintendo Switch and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: $400 ($80 savings)
• Pair of Joy-Con controllers: $80 ($20 savings)

PlayStation

Deals available from November 28 through December 6.

• PS4, The Last of Us: Remastered, God of War, and Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition: $250
• PS4 Pro: $370 ($120 savings)
• PSVR headset, camera, and vouchers for five games: $250

Xbox

Deals available from November 21 through December 2.

• Xbox One S digital: $179 ($120 savings)
• Xbox One S: $249 ($130 savings)
• Xbox One X: $449 ($150 savings)
• Xbox Wireless Controllers: starting at $50 ($15 savings)
• Xbox Custom Controllers: starting at $70 ($15 savings) through the Xbox Design Lab

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order makes you feel like a Jedi Knight

There’s nothing as satisfying as becoming a Jedi and being able to wield the power of the force. And that’s exactly what you do in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a new third-person action adventure game from Electronic Arts.

You play as Cal Kestis, a young Jedi Knight who survived the destruction of the order by the Emperor and the Empire, events which were detailed at the end of the film Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

It’s critical that players begin the game being able to use the Force. Anything else would be a disappointment, and here, you have powers from the start. You can slow objects and enemies and you can use a lightsaber to deflect energy missiles from blasters.

But you aren’t a full Jedi. Your connection to the force has been interrupted, so while you have basic Jedi abilities at the beginning of the game, you acquire more advanced skills as you progress, becoming a Jedi Knight along the way.

The game, available for PS4, Windows, and Xbox One, comes from Respawn Entertainment, developers of the Titanfall games. The DNA of those games is clearly evident here in how players move through the world, although the controls are occasionally sticky and lead me to some frustrating defeats.

This is by no means an easy game, either. On a couple of encounters I needed to adjust the difficulty easier, which you can do on the fly, and afterwards I turned it back up again. It’s a nod to the fact that people who may not be as skilled will still want to enjoy being a Jedi.

One of the things that makes Fallen Order so different from earlier Star Wars games is that it’s not a straight ahead linear game. Once you’ve been launched into the story, it’s more open, and you can decide which planets to visit and explore. As you learn new Jedi skills, paths that were previously unavailable open up, providing you with opportunities to return to places you’ve already been, to explore further.

You’re accompanied in your explorations by what is, by now, essential to Star Wars heroes: a cute and capable droid. BD-1 is integral to the story in Fallen Order, and becomes just as integral to how you play the game.

As you’re a Jedi, there’s no blaster in your arsenal, just a lightsaber. And you’ll learn to wield it effectively, supplementing your attacks with Force powers so that you become the Jedi Knight that you deserve to be.

After all, that’s why you’re playing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.