If you haven’t yet, go check out Nat Bailey Stadium for a Vancouver Canadians baseball game. This minor league club, currently at 11-11 and 4 games back of the first place Everett AquaSox, know how to put on a show for their fans. Nat Bailey Stadium, at Main and 30th in Vancouver, is a beautiful and well-maintained outdoor ballpark seating just over 5,500 loyal fans (I think -- although Wikipedia disagrees). Tonight’s game, the third of five home games in a row against the Yakima Bears, was a special “fireworks” evening at the stadium -- with ongoing entertainment following Vancouver’s 10-1 crushing of the Bears. The club didn’t disappoint -- winning big for the first nine innings, and putting on a spectacular pyro show after the game.

Aside from being in a fun and energetic setting among the thousands of fans, in an open-air (packed) stadium, with the sun heating up the perfectly manicured natural grass field, there are plenty of things to keep the whole family entertained. Mascot races, animated beer and hotdog guys roaming the stands, and more -- including a choreographed dance by the club’s grounds crew after the 5th inning at every home game:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4qe78h21X0

I took this next video with my phone to send to my friends back home in Montreal, to show them how magical local baseball is:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=06X-wuW5Urw

Tickets to see the Canadians play are just $12.50 and less -- depending on your student status, age, and whether you buy packaged deals. They also do a great job hosting groups in picnic or BBQ areas, and they even offer corporate boxes. The kids have a blast, too -- even if they’re not into the baseball, there are plenty of activities and areas to keep them entertained.

While at Nat Bailey Stadium, be sure to check out the Canadians Baseball Hall of Fame -- see who has worn the C’s uniform. It’s pretty impressive! Who knew Sammy Sosa once lived in Vancouver to play for the Canadians?? Also, keep your eyes open for General Manager Jason Takefman -- he’s got a pretty amazing story!

Here’s a short clip from the fireworks show after the game:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S77f1zLatM0

GO CANADIANS GO!

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not not buying this boat because it’s the coolest looking THING I’ve ever seen with multiple 52″ LED TV’s inside it, certainly not because it’s powered by two 4610HP engines, and not even because it comes with a pretty cool tender – an 880HP twin turbo V12 handcrafted sports car:

The reason I’m not buying this boat – if you must know – is because when I called the designer, he told me that $300 wouldn’t even be enough to buy the universal remote for the main entertainment system, let alone buy the boat.

This magnificent combo of marine (and land) engineering is a product of Strand Craft. Contact them here.

Once upgraded, the Xperia™ X10 will include:

• Free backup and restore application for your contacts, messages, bookmarks, settings etc.
• Improved usability of camera and media player.
• Improved overall phone performance, such as power consumption, touch sensitivity, and overall audio quality.

To upgrade the Xperia™ X10, please follow these steps:

1. Before you start, back up your contacts, messages, media files, bookmarks, calendar, tasks, notes, etc.
2. Go to www.sonyericsson.com/updateservice
3. Select your phone – Xperia™ X10
4. Install and run the update by clicking on the link “Download here”
5. Follow the instructions on your computer to connect your Xperia™ X10 and update the software.

The first week of GoGo In-Flight WiFi aboard US Air’s fleet of A321 jets is absolutely FREE to use – that is from June 1st – 8th 2010. After this, it will be about $10 to connect for your flight. Some notes:

- Web browsing speeds are satisfactory.
- Skype connected, but I’m not popular enough to have had any friends online to test with. The “test call” with the Skype system worked like a charm.
- My SIP phone (through Acanac, using X-Lite) disconnected after I heard “Hello?” on the other end of the line – I guess bandwidth isn’t high enough.
- I couldn’t get online in Mac OS X – thank the lord for Bootcamp (I run XP Pro, and it connected on my first attempt)
- For more info, check out US Airways’ WiFi page and GoGo (by Aircell).

Adios from somewhere 36,000 feet over the Carolinas!

Let’s hear your voice! To get you started, here are some more that NorthGeek really enjoyed:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=munMGzeqCQE

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fncOu6dp1IY

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha7duAPYdk0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y88bokAdLso

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8xllU3uUEU

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IZKuuta98M

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc1UbF3pcDQ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6jh23yE

www.youtube.com/watch?v=diTpeYoqAhc

This, while very cool and exciting at first glance, isn’t exactly anything BRAND NEW. Maybe this will be the first web-connected TV initiative to be adopted buy the masses, as it’s being backed by some little company called Google -- but it certainly isn’t the first and only device (or service) of its kind. Have a quick Google search session (ironic? What other search engine do you use) for Popcorn Hour, Western Digital HDTV, MythTV, TViX, Apple TV, and… dare I say, Playstation 3. Oh, and there’s Windows Media Center PC’s -- I know, you’re all yelling at me. But, if you want a TRUE home theater experience, then you’re going to need to support the real players in the game -- and they all support Microsoft’s MCPC OS.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAZYSVr2Bhc

This is very exciting -- although I’d be much happier if 2.2 was released yesterday, as opposed to just announced. We all sort of knew all the specs Froyo was going to be boasting. 2-5 times faster overall performance, WiFi hotspot-in-a-box, etc -- and some things we assume but they didn’t mention, like Flash support. What about my battery? Will it make my Nexus One battery last longer than 4 hours? Pretty please?

Sony Ericsson has made products that showcase more sustainable materials available through their GreenHeart™ strategy which takes a holistic approach to reducing negative environmental impacts and positively affecting those who use its products. Sony Ericsson’s Naite™ handset is the first GreenHeart™ product available in Canada. Some of its environmental benefits include:

The official press release follows:

Sony Ericsson calls on EU to further restrict hazardous substances in consumer electronics

Sony Ericsson joins forces with an alliance of public interest organizations and global technology brands to persuade the European Parliament to ban the use of hazardous substances in consumer electronics from 2015 onwards.

Brussels 19 May 2010 – In a partnership announced today Sony Ericsson joined Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and public interest organizations ChemSec, Clean Production Action and the European Environmental Bureau, to call for a strengthening of the EU Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive.

Currently the RoHS directive restricts some heavy metals and two types of BFR. However, Sony Ericsson along with other members of the alliance is calling for restrictions on all brominated flame retardants (BFR) as well as PVC. When BFR and PVC are incinerated under substandard recycling conditions, they form halogenated dioxins that are potent toxic chemicals. Sony Ericsson believes these brominated flame retardants and PVC should be phased out from electrical and electronic products as soon as possible. Over the past 18 months Sony Ericsson has been developing products without these unwanted substances and believes that substitute materials are available and could be rolled out across the industry with little disruption.

“Sony Ericsson is committed to a complete phase-out of halogenated organic substances from its products, and at the current time has phased out almost all brominated flame retardants (BFR),” said Daniel Paska, Environmental Expert at Sony Ericsson. “We believe the electronics industry has a responsibility to move proactively to find substitutes to replace BFR and PVC and are therefore calling on EU legislators to show leadership on this issue by voting to tighten the RoHS directive.”

Sony Ericsson along with the other members of the alliance will lobby EU legislators who are currently in the process of debating whether to tighten the existing RoHS directive and invites other members of the industry to join them.

“Sony Ericsson is committed to delivering products with the best possible environmental performance in the industry”, said Mats Pellbäck Scharp, Head of Corporate Sustainability at Sony Ericsson. “That is why we support strong environmental legislations. We have also introduced a range of GreenHeart™ pioneer phones that showcase more sustainable materials like recycled plastics, waterbourne paints and energy efficient chargers. We have also committed to making the majority of our 2011 portfolio compliant with GreenHeart™ requirements.
Sony Ericsson has to date phased out all PVC in its products and nearly all halogenated flame retardants.

For more information on GreenHeart™ and our environmental work, please visit the Sony Ericsson GreenHeart™ web page at http://www.sonyericsson.com/greenheart or the Sony Ericsson Greenheart™ blog at http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/greenheart/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=48MHLVFdoKE

[Note: If nothing is live right now, prerecorded content will be posted here.]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbVVDDu8f9k