NorthGeek

Habs win game 7 vs Pens, televised at Bell Centre

Our friend Chris took this video tonight at the Bell Centre. In his words: …during the televised Game 7 of the Montreal & Pittsburgh series. Montreal wins the game 5-2 and wins the series in 7 games 4-3. After the game, see footage of fans spilling out of the Bell Centre onto the streets of Montreal and taking over Ste-Catherine. Go Habs Go!

Well done, Chris!

We all love those early mornings

Our friends over at yourKloset have put together a great little video (with two ‘average’ looking individuals, if we do say so ourselves) making light of the early morning struggle so many of us face. If I were that dude, I’d have a tough time leaving the bed after waking up with her, too… This short is called a “Fashion Film” and is really well done. Enjoy!

Phillips Brewing – Surly Blonde (NorthGeek Beer Review Series)

We drink beer. Mostly BC beer for now. We tell you what we like.

Name: Surly Blonde Big Belgian Triple
Style: Tripel (aka triple) strong pale ale
Brewery: Phillips Brewing Company
Brewery Location: Victoria, BC

Color: Golden orange
Apparent Flavours (according to DW & NB): Bananas, sweet, fruity, spicy, yeast

NB Summary: This Belgian style ale is very drinkable, probably because it is sweet and relatively neutral on secondary flavors. So I will definitely drink this again, but it’s not close to being my favorite Belgian style trappist/strong ale — those, like Orval and Leffe, have lots of rich, secondary, adventure-seeking flavors. Pros: cool (maybe generic) label, nice rich color, crisp taste, sweet, high alcohol content (9.1%) that is still easily drinkable. Cons: fleeting white head, simple flavors. Phillips is going to get some mixed reviews on this one!

DW Summary: A very “pretty-colored” beer, I really liked this one. Belgian ales are among my favorite brews, and this Surly Blonde did not disappoint – other than maybe the smell. I would have really liked it with a wedge (or piece? What’s it called when it’s round, has the rind on it, and a little slit to rest on the rim of your glass?) of orange, and probably would have REALLY enjoyed sipping it outside on a hot day with the sun burning my face. Either way, I’ll be drinking this beer again!

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NB’s NorthGeek Beer Taster Ratings:

This beer is a: Casual drinking beer / Meal companion beer / Dessert beer

Taste 16/20
Smell 9/10
Goes down easy 9/10
Head consistency 4/10
Aftertaste 11/15
Bottle/Packaging 4/5
I would recommend this beer 8/10

TOTAL: 61/80

DW’s NorthGeek Beer Taster Ratings:

This beer is a: Casual drinking beer / Meal companion beer / Dessert beer

Taste 17/20
Smell 5/10
Goes down easy 8/10
Head consistency 7/10
Aftertaste 13/15
Bottle/Packaging 3/5
I would recommend this beer 9/10

TOTAL: 62/80

NORTHGEEK TOTAL: 61.5/80

What are your thoughts on this beer? Are we being too harsh in our reviews? Don’t get us wrong, we’re proud of our local BC brewers! Share in the comments below.

Win a Year of Ben & Jerry’s, Name Their New Canadian Flavour

If your suggestion for Ben & Jerry’s new flavour is selected, you can win one year of ice cream. You can now submit your idea on their Facebook page. The winner will be announced in late July — by then, you’ll be really overheated and wanting some ice cream.

Note: it’s a great, fun contest, but I think we’re all a little bit more weary about adding Facebook applications to our profiles these days, and this is exactly what you have to do to enter this contest.

Update June 3 2010: Ben & Jerry’s is launching a new flavour: “Ben & Jerry’s is taking to the ice in a whole new way this summer. Teaming up with NHLPA Goals & Dreams, Ben & Jerry’s is launching their newest Canadian flavour – Caramel Hat Trick – in support of grassroots hockey programs across the country. A triple-threat of caramel ice cream with a caramel swirl and fudge covered caramel chunks, Caramel Hat Trick is helping kids “hit the ice” in a whole new way! For every pint of Caramel Hat Trick sold, a portion of the proceeds will be directed to grassroots hockey to help young Canadians across the country realize their hockey potential.”

Russell Brewing – Honey Blonde Ale (NorthGeek Beer Review Series)

Sorry, Russell, as much as we love your cream ale, this Honey Blonde Ale just didn’t cut it. Our review below.

Name: Honey Blonde Ale
Style: Blonde Ale
Brewery: Russell Brewing Company
Brewery Location: Surrey, BC

Color: Medium yellow
Apparent Flavours (according to DW & NB): Stale, chemical, cheese, lemon, carbonated water

DW Summary: I hate to say it, but I REALLY did not enjoy this beer. I find it tasted more like carbonated water than beer. To be fair, though, I did have it just an hour after drinking a VERY hoppy Devil’s Elbow IPA – but still, this beer just didn’t do it for me. I don’t have much to say – just that unfortunately, I wouldn’t drink it again (we have 4/6 bottles left in the fridge if anyone wants ’em), and I wouldn’t recommend it to friends. Sorry, folks.

NB Summary: I find this beer too light in taste, too lemony, too carbonated, and not robust enough. The aftertaste is cheese and slight honey, and very short. Overall, the palate is pretty thin and this beer isn’t very exciting to me. Sorry Russell.

DW’s NorthGeek Beer Taster Ratings:

This beer is a: Casual drinking beer / Meal companion beer / Dessert beer ( / Never drink it beer)

Taste 5/20
Smell 6/10
Goes down easy 4/10
Head consistency 5/10
Aftertaste 8/15
Bottle/Packaging 3/5
I would recommend this beer 2/10

TOTAL: 33/80

NB’s NorthGeek Beer Taster Ratings:

This beer is a: Casual drinking beer / Meal companion beer / Dessert beer

Taste 6/20
Smell 3/10
Goes down easy 6/10
Head consistency 7/10
Aftertaste 2/15
Bottle/Packaging 3/5
I would recommend this beer 4/10

TOTAL: 31/80

NORTHGEEK TOTAL: 32/80

What are your thoughts on this beer? Share in the comments below.

Howe Sound Brewing – Devil’s Elbow India Pale Ale (NorthGeek Beer Review Series)

Here were are kicking off our love of beers through some pre-Vancouver Craft Beer Week reviews. Stay tuned for more!

Name: Devil’s Elbow India Pale Ale
Style: IPA
Brewery: Howe Sound Brewing
Brewery Location: Squamish, BC

Color: Mid-dark golden brown
Apparent Flavours (according to DW & NB): Nutmeg, dry hops, bitterness, orange rind, grapefruit, grass, copper

DW Summary: This strong IPA sticks to its BC roots (or Western North American roots, really) by having a large amount of hops, and offering a very bitter beer that I find difficult to categorize as a “pale” anything. A great meal companion, this beer goes down easier with spiciness or saltiness, otherwise it is a bit of a harsh (yet very tasty) beer. The light but dense foamy head makes for a nice preview as you take your first sip!

NB Summary: Here’s a big bitter West Coast IPA from Squamish, in a big 1L “resealable” bottle. Actually, it’s made with English and North American barley and hops, so the IPA is a bit of a misnomer. It’s got a unique sweet aroma, not hoppy at all, but the taste is anything but. Good things: citrus, more than average hoppy, frothy head, local. Not as good things: a little too carbonated. I will drink this again.

DW’s NorthGeek Beer Taster Ratings:

This beer is a: Casual drinking beer / Meal companion beer / Dessert beer

Taste 16/20
Smell 8/10
Goes down easy 6/10
Head consistency 9/10
Aftertaste 13/15
Bottle/Packaging 5/5
I would recommend this beer 7/10

TOTAL: 64/80

NB’s NorthGeek Beer Taster Ratings:

This beer is a: Casual drinking beer / Meal companion beer / Dessert beer

Taste 15/20
Smell 9/10
Goes down easy 8/10
Head consistency 9/10
Aftertaste 13/15
Bottle/Packaging 2/5
I would recommend this beer 8/10

TOTAL: 64/80

NORTHGEEK TOTAL: 64/80

What are your thoughts on this beer? On bitter West Coast IPAs? Share in the comments below.

Vancouver Schools to rally community to recycle E-waste this Earth Day

NorthGeek has been made aware of an excellent initiative involving a few Vancouver-based high schools – we wanted to help spread the word. BEST OF LUCK to the students involved, and be sure to help out, NorthGeeks!

Students aiming to recycle more than 30,000 kilograms of E-waste through Best Buy’s Tech It Away program.

To help divert some of the 270,000 tonnes of electronic waste that end up in Canadian landfills each year, Best Buy Canada has teamed up with three Vancouver high schools to lead a city-wide E-waste recycling drive through its Tech It Away program on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22. On that day, Vancouverites can drop off their used, broken or unwanted personal electronics for free and safe recycling at one of the three schools and do their part to help keep Canada green.

The official event site can be found here: http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/techitaway.aspx

The participating schools – Eric Hamber Secondary, Killarney Secondary and Sir Charles Tupper Secondary – will each receive $10,000 in grants in honour of their environmental effort. Plus, as added incentive, the school that collects the most electronics for recycling will receive $2,000 to fund a student-led environmental initiative. Last year participating schools recycled 30 tonnes of E-waste and this year the students are aiming to beat that benchmark.

What: Students from three Vancouver secondary schools will host E-recycling events for their communities at large
A variety of electronics will be accepted including: TVs, Computers, Laptops, Printers, Cell Phones, Batteries, DVD players and more. A full list is available at http://www.bestbuy.ca/techitaway

When: Thursday, April 22, from 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Where: Best Buy Tech it Away events will take place at:

NorthGeek Unboxing: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

Thanks to Sony Ericsson Canada, we have our paws on this slick little device. Stay tuned for some hands-on impressions in the coming days. In the meantime, here’s a quick unboxing video to whet your appetites:

Please be patient, the video may still be processing so its FULL HD delight might not be there yet…

How to order from Zappos in Canada

If you are trying to order from Zappos’ US site using a Canadian credit card, enter the following information:

• Secondary address line = City, Province, Postal Code
• City = Canada
• State = AA
• ZIP Code = 99999

Sneak peak at Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

Yesterday in Vancouver, NorthGeek met with Peter Farmer and Neil Dutton from Sony Ericsson Canada about the upcoming Xperia X10 launch. Canada is highly anticipating the release of this new Android device, and, well, so are we. The news is that we should know in mid April exactly what it will cost and when it will be here, which will likely be sometime in Q2.

THE SPECS
You probably already know that it comes with the blazing fast 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, a mega four inch WVGA display, and a sharp 8.1 megapixel camera… also 13mm thick, white or black, microSD up to 32GB (16GB included). If you want more specs, check them here.

SIGNATURE APPLICATIONS
“Signature Applications” is Sony Ericsson’s label for their Android skin — the front look and dominant applications on the Android platform. On the X10, this is dominated by Timescape, Mediascape, Infinite Button, and face recognition. Learn more about these in their online demo. Basically, the device is focused on aggregating your social media streams. It’s not just SMS, MMS, emails, and photos, etc, but also connecting with Facebook, Twitter, and something called MySpace, so you can visualize a person’s presence and correspondence in one place. Sony Ericsson is not the first to do this, but it’s certainly useful and centrally located on the X10.

However, the links within the apps go to the individual services’ mobile sites, not embedded apps like Hootsuite, Seesmic, or Facebook for Android. Also, there’s no Flickr yet — what other integration will you want? We will have to wait and see how Sony Ericsson continues to innovate and add functionality here. Will these features (a mix of the Signature Apps mentioned above) eliminate the need for standalone apps? I doubt they will — apps like Hootsuite or Facebook are so impressive and complete — so we will see how we might use both options or if they will coordinate well.

WHY MORE THAN A VANILLA ANDROID DEVICE?
Rogers has been recently tweeting about the Google Nexus One becoming available in Canada, so it’s hard to ignore the face-off between these two devices. The Nexus One also has the Snapdragon processor (yes, it does have a smaller 5MP camera and 3.7″ screen), but a bare-bones Android likely offering quicker performance and speed. And the most recent version of Android, always.

The X10 comes with Android 1.6, because the Signature Apps need to adapt to new Android OSs, and won’t have the same battery management, task management, etc. It would be difficult for any Android device manufacturer to keep pace with Google’s quickly iterating OS if there is a skin built on top which always needs revisions.

The X10 is trying to do something different here. With a background in media, hardware, and taking chances with their phones (eg. their attempt to embrace Symbian a few years ago), as well as recognizable brands like Cybershot and Walkman, Sony Ericsson is trying to create a unique device experience here. Their skin is impressive and slick, but it will take some time to determine if it is better and who will embrace it. Is a skin really better for Android?

THE BUSY CANADIAN ANDROID LANDSCAPE
Rogers now has lots of Android devices. They are likely a world leader on this front, and were even the first mobile operator to offer both an iPhone and Android. Sony Ericsson believes that there is room here for multiple Android phones. All this competition is going to be very, very, very good for consumers. Watch out Apple.

OVERALL
This piece of X10 hardware is phenomenal. It feels great in the hand, is good looking, has a class-leading screen, and sports a camera verging on real. We’re still wondering if a skin is a good thing. They are competing with the Nexus One now, which sells without support from Rogers — does this matter? Ultimately, we need to spend more time with the device, but this certainly looks promising for Sony Ericsson in the future of smartphones. Coming soon is NorthGeek’s Nexus One review (the Canadian version with 3G frequency support).