Picking the perfect camera for mom doesn’t have to be hard, but it does need some thought. You know your mum the best, so (and this really should be common sense!) think about the things she likes to do and the photos she’s taken in the past to give you some clues about the type of camera that she might like.

Thankfully we’re well past the day-and-age when we can assume that every mom wants a point-and-shoot just because she’s a mom. We’re all living in a world where moms are free to be creative, or geeky, or ultra-efficient, so it’s no surprise that there’s no silver bullet here. It’s going to take some work, so let’s get started.

Pinterest, the online visual pin board, is currently the social media darling and is responsible for inspiring many of you to explore your inner creativity. For this summer, get yourself a sewing machine to help you work on those DIY projects you’ve been tempted to try.   

Distracted driving is a dangerous practice and one of the leading causes of road mishaps and serious accidents. Each time someone takes or makes a call or sends a text when driving, it decreases their focus on the road and the cars or people around them. Motorola's Roadster 2 is a multifunction Bluetooth speakerphone accessory that can help avoid distracted driving. It connects with your Android device and comes with a number of surprise features. It is available now via Future Shop for $99.99

I think it’s pretty traditional when you get any group of tech geeks writing in a place like this that eventually you do a “What’s on your homescreen?” series of posts. We’re no different here at the Tech Blog, so I give you…

What’s on our homescreens…Future Shop style.

Fine, fine. Apple tells us that the new iPad is just the greatest touchscreen ever. Touch here, touch there. Yeah, but have you tried playing draw something against a cartoonist when you’re just using your finger? Yeah I do all the time, two actually, well I would be going up against them with just finger doodles if it wasn’t for my array of stylii that I keep around me. Yes, I love my iPad. Yes, the screen is awesome. But I think a stylus (or two, since you want them around you all the time) is a great thing too.

It doesn’t take long to like a phone like the HTC One X, and the reasons why are both self-explanatory and numerous. This is HTC’s flagship phone for 2012, and it packs a lot of punch into a frame that’s not necessarily small, but thin enough to make it light, portable and easy to get lost in once you start using it. I was fortunate enough to spend about two weeks with it, where I was thoroughly impressed with how good the phone is, though there were a few gripes along the way.

If you’re in the GTA on May 16th, 2012, you can head to Ryerson University to attend Nikon Day, where you’ll  hear from acclaimed professionals in the photography and cinematography fields as well as Nikon's Professional Services team. Here’s what Nikon’s PR had to say about Nikon Day:

As the professional imaging and multimedia landscape evolves, creative visionaries increasingly demand more from their equipment. They depend on their digital SLRs to help tell stories, document moments and inspire audiences. Their cameras must be versatile and functional, and are expected to produce exceptional results. They must be able to handle any assignment and adapt to unpredictable shooting environments and conditions. Anything less could compromise the integrity of their work.

The clock is counting down to one of the biggest gaming releases of the year. As I write this, there are only 10 days, 3 hours, 25 minutes and 10 seconds left before Diablo III is unleashed upon the world.

To celebrate the launch, retailers across the world will be opening at midnight to start selling the game, including Future Shop. All Future Shop stores (except those in Quebec and Sudbury, where stores are opening at 8am due to local by-laws) are opening on Monday, May 14^th at 11:59 pm local time.

At the midnight openings there will be a number of bonuses available for buyers of Diablo III, including an exclusive SteelBook collectible case for the game, Diablo III mouse pads, t-shirts, and posters. Also, all attendees will receive a $10 Future Shop credit for gaming purchases in June 2012.

This week we're going to look at the second router in my three-part series on the latest offering from Cisco / Linksys, and for this post we're going to step it up a notch with the Linksys EA3500, targeted at folks with slightly more sophisticated network needs.

If you haven't read my previous post on the EA2700, take a moment and do that now. It'll give you a good framework to build upon, because that's what Linksys has done with this router series and the EA3500 in particular; taken everything that's great about the EA2700 and made it better while adding a few new features, at a slightly different price point, of course.

In a few short weeks, many of us will be dusting off our tents and trailers, and sweeping the spiders out of the cottagages as we enjoy the Victoria Day weekend and journey into the great outdoors.

Of course, many of us will also be bringing our tech toys with us. I know I do: laptop, iPad, iPhone, eBook reader and a few cameras -- but one of my favourite activities is photography so all this tech is *essential* for that. Really

Now, the big concern I always have when I do take my gear out with me is that, after the trip is over, the gear still works and hasn't suffered major problems.

So let me share with you how I keep my gear happy without sacrificing my outdoor enjoyment.

The fourth day of May is known by science fiction fans the world over as Intergalactic Star Wars Day. The official greeting of the day is, as you may have guessed, “May the fourth be with you” and if the pun makes you smile even a little you might take an interest in Kobo eReaders and their extensive lbrary of science fiction works. Kobo has one of the biggest eReader libraries in the world which features hundreds of science fiction titles to appeal to the Star Wars fan in you. 

UPDATE: A teaser trailer has been released. Check it out after the jump.

Just as there was big news in the world of smartphones today, there was also some big news in gaming today. Bethesda officially announced that they will be releasing an Elder Scrolls MMO, The Elder Scrolls Online, and that it is coming out in 2013.

Rumours and speculation that Samsung would unveil its latest hero smartphone, the Galaxy S III, proved to be true, as the company did just that at its Unpacked event today in London. Considered “the biggest launch of the year”, the phone is feature-packed and you can expect to see an LTE version of it come to Canada this summer.

Mother’s Day is just around the corner (May 13th to be exact). It’s a day to spoil and shower your mommy with gifts. We all know your mom is a multi-tasker, so in addition to getting her a dozen red roses, she’ll love you for including a household gadget to make her life so much easier.
Here are some great gift ideas for under $150: 

I’ve previously detailed how the HTC One series of phones are a return to the drawing board for HTC. In 2011, HTC went from being pioneers in the Android phone market to also-rans, with a series of lacklustre device releases. Now, with their new One series of smartphones, they are back in top form. From what I have seen so far, the HTC One S, V & X are very impressive devices, especially the HTC One X, which could be considered to be the best Android-powered smartphone available today. With its sleek white polycarbonate unibody shell, 4.7” HD screen, and powerful Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) OS, there really isn’t anything else that comes close to it, in my opinion - at least for now.

While I am not actually reviewing the phone for the Tech Blog (that honour is going to TeddyK), I did get a chance to spend some time with the One X last week. I recorded a hands-on video, that you can see after the jump, and I shot some pictures of the One X, so you can admire its beauty. (And no, I don’t feel silly calling a phone "beautiful").

Activision has unleashed the first trailer for the next Call of Duty, with developer Treyarch taking the fight into the future to find fresh means for the Black Ops franchise to set the world on fire this November 13th.

What does a society do when the technology designed to protect them is turned against them? That's the question at the heart of this reveal trailer for Black Ops II, which you can catch below.

Please join me in welcoming Leila Pejman, widely known as ThePej around the interwebs, to the Tech Blog as the editor for Appliances! From laundry tips to testing out the best coffee makers, she'll be making sure everyone has the information they need to make those important appliance decisions.

Music streaming has never been this popular. Rdio, Slacker, Music Unlimited, Last.FM and others have already hit the Canadian market looking to cut a piece of the pie, so why not have France-based Deezer enter the mix, too? It’s been a week or so since the official launch and I got to try it out on a couple of smartphones.

There are those who eagerly anticipate online gaming events. And then there's the rest of the world. I kinda fall into the first category.

This past weekend I participated in such an event -- the first Guild Wars 2 open beta test. Basically it was two and a half days of fresh Guild Wars goodness!

Photography is one of my life-long passions. I truly did start when I was 9 and have taken maybe (maybe?) a million pictures over the past 30 years. I made the jump to digital photography about the time many other folks did (about 2003–04 ish) and haven’t looked back. Up until a few years ago, the only way I could really get a look at what I shot was to load the images onto a laptop (or something computer-ish). When I got my iPad, I didn’t get the Camera Connector Kit right away, but it didn’t take me long. Over the past several years of having an iPad I have learned that tablets are truly a photographer’s best friend. Here’s why…

Research In Motion kicked off its BlackBerry World developer and partner conference today by demoing the BlackBerry 10 operating system running on a sexy new multi-touch slate. Called the Dev Alpha device, which was handed to developers here, it is the first BlackBerry smartphone to run the new QNX-based operating system which is expected to make a big splash later on this year.

You may have seen multiple-monitor desktops like this before and wondered what was going on. The secret is that they’re very easy to set up these days, and can be such a productivity boost that users often get spoilt, not wanting to go back to the constraints of single-monitor setups. You might be surprised to see what you can do with them, and how quickly you can get this sort of system up and running. 

The first ever Fan Expo Vancouver descended upon the Vancouver Convention Centre last weekend, bringing with it Hollywood celebrities, exclusive attractions and a sea of fandemonium.  As part of the weekend convention, Reboot Communications and Greedy Productions held their annual Canadian Videogame Awards (CVAs), with Future Shop as the title sponsor (see the Red Carpet photos here). 

It always brings a smile to my face when I show people a video I’ve shot, only to see their reaction when I tell them I did it with an iPhone 4S. The improved camera and almost limitless camera apps available in the App Store have made the phone a pretty viable pocket camera. But there are some holes that could be filled, which is where Belkin comes in with its trio of camera accessories.

Though they’re not sold together in one package or bundle, the LiveAction Camera Grip, LiveAction Camera Remote and LiveAction Mic can all work together or each solve a specific need on their own.

Heralded as one of the best comic book story arcs of all time, Batman: Year One was bound to become an animated film sooner or later. Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s four-issue look at Batman’s origin takes a fresh new approach to crime fighting, presenting a far more ambiguous take on the superhero genre. 

I’ll fully admit I’m a latecomer to using AirPlay to its (nearly) full extent at home. At a previous place I worked recently, I used AirPlay coupled with an AppleTV to mirror an iPad screen to a big TV for how-to seminars. At home, I longed to be able to listen to my music from my iPhone or iPad through my home theater system. Oh sure my home theater happens to have a nice iPod/iPhone dock, but that also meant taking my iPhone out of its case. Well, silly me, I had almost all the components lying around to be able to use AirPlay to stream music to my home theater. But first, just what the heck is AirPlay anyway?

Sgt. James Heller has lost his whole family due to the viral outbreak in New York Zero for which he places the blame squarely on Alex Mercer. He’s out for revenge in Prototype 2, tearing, ripping, smashing and even eating his way through this tale of vengeance, politics, and conspiracy set fourteen years after the original best-selling 2009 Prototype game. 

The word photography is derived from the Greek words (by way of Latin) for light and study; the transliteration is roughly: “writing with light”. So naturally, when we’re talking about taking pictures at night, things can get rough: there isn’t enough light to take pictures the way you do during the day.

To kick of Digital Photography Month we’re going to look at how to get better pictures at night with these five easy steps.