News

Legendary Rock ‘n’ Roll DJ Red Robinson dead at 86

April 4, 2023 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

Red Robinson introduces Rubber Soul PNE August 21, 2004. Photo by Greg Gazin

Robinson interviewed, befriended and introduced the likes of The Beatles, Elvis, Bill Haley, and Buddy Holly to the Canadian public

Legendary Canadian Rock’ n’ Roll broadcaster and DJ Red Robinson passed away on Saturday at 86 after a brief illness.

I first met Red in 2004 when I asked him to introduce a tribute band I was managing at the time – Rubber Soul – The Beatles Experience – which had been selected to perform on the opening night (Aug. 21) of Vancouver’s Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) to commemorate both the 50th anniversary of the PNE and the 40th anniversary of the Beatles first Canadian concert at what was then the Empire Stadium. Empire Stadium was torn down during the eighties to make way for the PNE.

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Filed Under: Entertainment, GadgetGreg, In the news, News, Oh Canada!, podcast, Radio, Troy Media · Tagged With: Announcement, history, music, Musicians, The Beatles

TOP GUN: MAVERICK fills the “Need for Speed”

June 8, 2022 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

*Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick from Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.*

Thirty-six years and some things pretty much remain the same. The same can be said for Tom Cruise, a.k.a Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Cruise who turns 60 in July still has that youthful look and still up to his same tricks as the courageous and cocky test pilot persona reclaiming the top role in the much anticipated movie TOP GUN: MAVERICK, the sequel to the 1986 Top Gun.

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Filed Under: Entertainment, GadgetGreg, In the news, News, Review · Tagged With: Movie, Review, Tom Cruise, Top Gun

Uber Canada offering 50% off round trips to vote

September 20, 2021 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

Discounts of up to $5 off each trip

If getting to the polls is a reason not to get out and vote, Uber Canada is reaching out to help. As part of the company’s commitment to get people out to the polls, they’re offering discounts to riders. The discounts apply to on roundtrips to and from their local voting stations of up to 50%, up to five dollars off per trip, not including tips.

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Filed Under: Announcements, GadgetGreg, In the news, News, Oh Canada!, Signs of the Times · Tagged With: Canada, travel, Uber, Voting

Netflix & Podcasts: Video is Loving the Radio Star

August 13, 2021 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

Netflix Podcast: Strong Black Leads – Tracy Clayton(L) interviews Hollywood celeb Jason Weaver

The phrase, “Video Killed the Radio Star” is often cited as a metaphor with respect to the domination of video over audio. It’s also a song by a British New-Wave band and one-hit wonder, Buggles and the first selection played by MTV 40 years ago this month, August 1, 1981 to be exact, that sparked the birth of the music video revolution.

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Filed Under: GadgetGreg, In the news, Lifestyle, News, podcast · Tagged With: Netflix, Podcasts

How to turn off Netflix Autoplay previews

February 10, 2020 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

Netflix, loved by many, has become a national past time and has undoubtedly created a satiable desire for binge watching. So if you have become increasingly annoyed by auto-play previews wasting even one precious second of watch time, you’ll be thrilled to know that you now have an opt-out feature you can access directly for the web.

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Filed Under: GadgetGreg, In the news, News · Tagged With: Binge watching, movies, Netflix, streaming, TV

Netflix Sharing to Instagram Stories for iOS Now Available

January 30, 2019 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

If you’re like most people you likely find it’s just as much fun to share your favourite must-see Netflix titles with family and friends as it is to watch them. Now if you’re an Instagram Stories fanatic (I’m not there yet), you may be interested to know that via the latest version iPhone Netflix app, released just last week now supports Instagram Story sharing.

According to Netflix, to do so simply…

- - Navigate to any title on the iPhone Netflix app and tap share.
  - Select “Instagram Stories” from a list of apps, and be taken directly to Instagram Stories where they can have some fun with the title’s background art and text sticker.
  - When ready, they’re able to post directly to their stories or send directly to one or more friends’ DMs.
  - Friends and followers can click on the link in the Instagram Story to view the title on the Netflix iPhone app.
The app had previously supported sharing to other platforms like What’s App, Messenger, Twitter and others.

Filed Under: Apps Alive, GadgetGreg, News, Social Media · Tagged With: Instagram, Instagram Stories, Netflix, news, Sharing

New massive Microsoft Canada HQ slated for September 2020

September 11, 2018 by Announcements · Leave a Comment

This morning, Microsoft Canada announced that it will move its Canadian headquarters to a new space in the heart of downtown Toronto at 81 Bay Street. Opening in 2020, the new facility will span four floors & 132,000 square feet of the new CIBC Square, empowering employees to thrive in a new modern workplace. Currently under construction, the new facility’s more central location is well-served by transit and is closer to Toronto’s downtown innovation hub. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Announcements, GadgetGreg, In the news, News, Oh Canada!, Press Releases · Tagged With: Canada, investment, Microsoft, Toronto

New iRig Keys I/O integrated control for GarageBand and Logic Pro X

February 23, 2018 by Announcements · Leave a Comment

IK Multimedia has just announced a new plug-in is available for iRig Keys I/O that enables control surface integration forGarageBand and Logic Pro X. Using the touch-sensitive knobs and buttons on iRig Keys I/O this allows users to control functions such as: transport control with play, record, fast-forward and rewind buttons; moving the play head forward or backward via the data knob; looping on/off by pressing the data knob, and rotary knob control of the main parameters for effects and instruments in Logic Pro X and GarageBand. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Announcements, New Product, News · Tagged With: GarageBand, Logic Pro X, music

Apple quietly mutes iPod nano, shuffle

July 27, 2017 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

Try to find an iPod nano or iPod shuffle at your online Apple Store and you’ll find them nowhere to be found, as it appears that Apple has sent them off to iPod heaven.

These two Apple music players were destined to be discontinued. But it was certainly just a matter of time that as Apple focuses on Apple Music rather than rely on music downloads the primary source for these two devices.

iPod Shuffle

The iPod Shuffle was first introduced in 2005 and was the first iPod to use solid-state storage. Read more…at Canoe Tech Blog.

Filed Under: Apple, Canoe Technology, GadgetGreg, News · Tagged With: Apple, ipod, music, Music player

Netflix adds video previews to TV interface

December 6, 2016 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

Scrolling through Netflix selections and reading the descriptions can sometimes be extremely time-consuming and often not very helpful, so Netflix has decided to enhance the user’s search experience. Today, they announced a new TV interface, which adds video previews alongside the title’s description.

Not a Teaser or Trailer

The video previews included in the new interface will however, not exactly be a teaser or the traditional trailers we’ve become so accustomed to. Read Full Post at Canoe Tech Blog.

Filed Under: Canoe Technology, GadgetGreg, News · Tagged With: Netflix, streaming video