So, you have a new tablet...
For the past few years, Christmas has marked a spike in the number of Globe and Mail app downloads. It makes sense, of course. People open their presents, find a new, shiny device and immediately connect to WiFi and download apps.
The holidays also happen to be a great time for immersive reading.
With that in mind, we’ve collected a dozen of our favourite articles from 2014 and shared them below. They’ve been selected for their rich content, multimedia layering and the fact they look great on a smaller screen. Enjoy.
Canada’s banks fight back against the likes of Apple, Facebook
Canada’s financial institutions weathered the Great Recession much better than most, but now they face new challenges from tech behemoths who want to get in on retail banking
The death of Eddie Snowshoe: The fatal sentence of solitary confinement
After a botched robbery, Eddie Snowshoe spent 162 consecutive days in solitary confinement — then he hanged himself. Half of prison suicides are committed by inmates in segregation units. Yet as countries around the world ban it, Canada relies on solitary more and more. Patrick White investigates our troubling reliance on a practice many experts equate with torture
No safe use: The Canadian asbestos epidemic that Ottawa is ignoring
Canada’s embrace of the “miracle mineral” has seeded an epidemic of cancers. Yet many Canadians are still exposed to asbestos every day. Don’t look to Ottawa for help — it’s still defending an industry that, like its victims, is wasting away
Saving Cyla: How it feels to have awake brain surgery
Cyla Daniels agreed to let The Globe and Mail film as doctors opened her skull and burrowed into her brain in search of a deep-seated tumour, waking her up to test her speech, reading and writing skills as they went. Warning: This multivideo feature has graphic content
We asked musicians to write songs about 2014 news events
The Globe approached a record label and the Canadian Opera Company and the result is stranger and more beautiful than we could have hoped: Six original compositions offer unique interpretations of some of 2014’s most important events
Untangling the Middle East: A guide to the region’s web of relationships
As civil war rages in Syria and the Islamic State movement storms across much of Iraq, long-time rivalries and alliances are shifting in the Middle East. Here is a guide that cuts through the tangled web of alliances and enmities in the region
Is Canada's future in the North? Ian Brown explores
Writer Ian Brown and photojournalist Peter Power learn that the High Arctic, touted as Canada’s future, is like nothing any southerner expects
After decades of neglect, Canadian thalidomide victims are seeking justice
Canadian victims of the ‘wonder’ drug are seeking justice as they live with the fallout from one of the worst health scandals in history. Will anybody listen?
Cheap at sea, pricey on the plate: The voodoo of lobster economics
Amid an unprecendent glut, Larry the doomed lobster is followed from a Nova Scotia trap to a Toronto table
Changes are coming to TV: The issues and where the players stand
After two weeks of the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV hearings, one thing is clear: Changes are coming. Here's a breakdown of the major issues and where the big players stand
‘We have no homeland’: Ukraine dissolves as exiles flee
It began as a simple trade dispute and escalated into war. A year later, one million Ukrainians have been forced from their homes
The 24 cookies of Christmas
Christmas time means cookies – so to make this your most delicious holiday ever, we cooked up an advent calendar featuring our 24 favourite recipes