After months of speculation, Rogers revealed in their Q1 earnings report that they will be bringing the iPhone to Canada later this year. Pricing and other details were not disclosed. → Read More
The Canadians gave us The Kids in the Hall, one of the greatest sketch comedy troupes in the history of North American comedy. It appears that we’re now half-assedly returning the favor, as Dell computers will be sold in all 131 Future Shop retail stores and online at FutureShop.ca, starting tomorrow. Some of the available Dell products include; the Inspiron 1525 laptop, the XPS 1330 and 1530 laptops, the Inspiron 530 and 530s desktops, the XPS 420 desktop, and a 19- and a 22-inch monitor. You’re welcome? Check out FutureShop.ca tomorrow for more details. → Read More
http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:southparkstudios.com:165195:: Canadians on strike! Pandas sneezing! Butt stuff! South Park, America’ favorite show most of us claim to watch but barely watch anymore, made fun of the writers strike, Internet celebrity, and Canada all in the same episode. Vwag found a few choice clips, including a NSFW one after the jump, and proves that those boys from Colorado still have it, provided “it” is herpes. Best of all, the full show is right here. → Read More
[photopress:canadafb.jpg,full,right] Perhaps it isn’t wise to update your Facebook status with your location if you’re in the military. Just a guess. Canada’s military leaders have told their troops to refrain from posing sensitive information on social networks like Facebook and MySpace. The fear is that Al Qaeda (and other evildoers, presumably) could be watching your profile for info that could help it plan an attack. Filed under the common sense department ($1 to Slashdot). Canada tells troops not to post Facebook info: CBC [Reuters via Drudge Report] → Read More
It appears the rumored touchscreen BB is just a myth if you believe what first time poster Cooper over at BB Forums has to say. This photo was purportedly taken in Waterloo at the RIM campus. The 9xxx line won’t see a touchscreen for a long time and it seems as though it’s a myth internally, too according to Coops. I have a hard time swallowing this one. If anything, this looks like a redesign of the Curve. A couple characteristics of this particular RIM device stand out; its rounded corners and keyboard. The photo also appears in an eBay auction located in Texas so that is a testament to Cooper’s credibility or lack there of. The backwards B is also a clear indicator. He/she goes on to give tid bits about 3G devices and HTML e-mail being tested. Whether they will appear on the 9xxx line or not is up for debate and will allegedly be coming out in six to eight months. Blackberry 9000 [BB Forums] → Read More
The University of Manitoba recently held a funeral for its 47-year old IBM 650 mainframe — four people had to carry the almost 2,000-pound computer as Amazing Grace played in the background. This video is pretty funny and it’s my opinion that all your favorite technology items should receive similar ceremonies. How to really bury a mainframe [NetworkWorld] via Slashdot → Read More
Awwwwwwww dude. That sucks, man. Poor Piotr Staniaszek (not pictured left). He hooked his $10-per-month unlimited mobile browser phone up to his computer and used it for his Internet service and got a big fat bill for $85,000 in the mail. The worst part? Bell Mobility just let him keep racking up the charges. "The thing is, they’ve cut my phone off for being like $100 over. Here, I’m $85,000 over and nobody bothered to give me a call and tell me what was going on," Staniaszek told CBC News. Bell lowered the bill to $3,243 as a "goodwill gesture", which must be some sort of Canadian humor that I don’t understand, like the Kids in the Hall episode where Bruce McCullouch’s character steals sausages from the factory where he works. Anyway, Staniaszek is planning to fight the charges. Shock at $85k mobile phone bill [BBC News] → Read More
Some “wannabe Zune owner” has stumbled upon a treasure trove of 30GB Zunes (original flavor) on sale at XSCargo, a discount retailer north of the border. Of course, they’re refurbished, and there’s no brown one available, but from the frenzied replies of the Zune-seeking Canucks in this forum post, even a refurbished, white Zune 1 will get a buyer up there. More power to ‘em, I guess! Zune at XSCargo [via Zunerama forum] → Read More
Oh hey. Ya, they got them TiVo in Canada now, you betcha. You can get a Series 2 dual-tuner DVR for $199 CAD or $10,223 USD, considering the exchange rate. You also got to get yourself a TiVo subscription, ya, and it’ll be available at Best Buy, The Brick, Ye Olde Maple and Moose Shoppes, Beer ‘n’ Pancakes ‘n’ DVRs, Bruce’s Hockey and Electronics Store, and Geez It’s Got a Low Price, Dave. Press Release Product Page [Warning: In Canadian] → Read More
Prepare your grains of salt, but according to BGR, our neighbors to the north might be getting the iPhone in early December. It’ll apparently be running on the Rogers network and will cost $499CAD with a three-year contract. Is that normal, a three-year contract? Can any remaining Canadian readers shed some light on that? Whether this rumor is true or not, I think we all can agree that The Kids in the Hall was one of the best troupes in the history of comedy. Let’s keep everything in perspective here and focus on what’s really important. Apple iPhone launching on Rogers December 7th? [Boy Genius Report] → Read More
Piracy allows me to enjoy funny clips like this that get put up on YouTube illegally With piracy on the rise, it’s a no-brainer that the MPAA is busy going crazy over each CAM and Telesync released to sites like The Pirate Bay. Canada has an ongoing problem with movie piracy in Calgary and although digital watermarks have helped pinpoint pirates in specific theaters, more help is needed to combat them. Now theaters are turning to metal detectors and night-vision goggles for help in finding movie pirates. Pretty excessive stuff. Says moviegoer Sharanpal Ruprai of a recent trip to a movie screening: “They were really checking, and one guy seemed to have a metal detector,” she said. “Halfway through the movie, I looked up and [saw] another security guard had what seemed to be night-vision goggles. He was sort of scanning the audience for cellphones or cameras, that sort of thing.” Crazy! It’s just a friggin’ movie! I guess actors’ paychecks are at stake. Such a shame. New weapons used in pursuit of film pirates [MSN] → Read More
Poor Canada, no one cares about you, hockey or the fact that you very well might have to pay additional taxes every time you buy an iPod. It seems like the Copyright Board of Canada has green lighted the tax on DAPs and flash storage cards. (It can’t be any worse, ideologically at least, than the $1 Microsoft pays Universal per Zune sold.) If the tax actually goes into effect, the price of a 30GB iPod would shoot up some $75, coming out to around $460. O Canada indeed. But hey, Canada, if the price hike—excuse me, “levy,”—goes through, at least you’ll still be able to walk into a doctor’s office without your checkbook and giant stacks of money. New tax could raise price of iPods by $75 [Digital Home] → Read More
The iPhone has come and gone here and is rumored to be on its way to Europe soon. What about Canada? (What about Canada, indeed.) According to one of those research types from the University of Ottawa, which is Alex Trebek’s alma mater by the by, Canadians should blame expensive wireless data rates for the iPhone’s continued not-being-there-ness. Since Rogers controls the Canadian GSM wireless market much in the same way that Mr. Burns controls the sun, it has no incentive to offer inexpensive wireless data plans. This isn’t to say that Canadians should give up hope on watching “Dog on a skateboard” videos in the palm of their hands altogether, but is just a possible reason as to why the device still isn’t there. After all, Rogers did tell us that it was, one day, going to bring the iPhone to the Canadian market. Seeing as though Thierry Henry just went to Barca, I guess I’m now a “better late than never” type person. ::Cough:: Exorbitant data rates keeping iPhone out of Canada? [AppleInsider] → Read More
Canadians get all the fun stuff: Socialized healthcare, clean air, provinces and territories instead of states. And now, along with getting the BlackBerry 8830 smartphone, they’ll be getting GPS Nav from Bell, powered by TeleNav GPS. We just so happen to be giving away free service right now if you’d like to test out the wonders of TeleNav’s GPS service on your Blackberry. TeleNav is donating a Bluetooth GPS receiver and 3 months of TeleNav service for two lucky readers. Here’s how to win: Tell us your most creative idea for using the new “share my location” features (hit the jump to read more about the feature). Maybe a nice game of tag? Perhaps using it to organize a revolution of some sort? Whatever you think of, e-mail it to us at: contest at crunchgear dot com. Use the subject line SHARE YOUR LOCATION. The top two entries win the prize. We’re extending the contest to MONDAY, JULY 2, to give everyone some more time to enter. The service is available for select handsets and devices from all the major carriers. Check here to see if yours is supported. Hit the jump to read the full details on the new features. Many thanks to TeleNav! → Read More
Our neighbors to the north are starting on some projects similar to ongoing ones here in the US. Montreal will be the first city to get both a citywide WiFi and WiMAX network installed. The project, a joint venture between Nomad Telecom and Radioactif.com, is expected to be completed entirely in 2009, but some residents could see web access as soon as September. Similar to Philadelphia’s idea of public WiFi, Montreal plans to offer residents VoIP and high-speed ‘net access. The cost shouldn’t exceed $30 a month and will allow for total Internet access throughout the city. Though I don’t see many people taking advantage of WiMAX for years to come, the WiFi will surely be embraced by everyone with a computer. BONUS EDIT: Speculation — what is that creature swimming in the water? – Blake First wireless network WiMAX Wi-Fi deployed in Montreal [Mobile in Canada] → Read More
Ontario, a place to live and a place to grow, is outlawing incandescent bulbs in 2012 in a move to encourage energy savings on a national scale. The switch would save six million megawatt hours per yer. The ban wouldn’t effect special use cases, like medicine, and will encourage the use of compact florescents that use 75 percent less energy than the older incandescent bulbs. Good on ya, Canada. Now if only you had low crime rates, public health plans, low-cost medicines, and maple sap. Oh, wait… Ontario turns out the lights on inefficient bulbs [CBC] → Read More
Since I’m not Canadian, I’m a little out of the loop on what Rogers has been up to. According to TorrentFreak, the ISP banned BitTorrent traffic due to excessive bandwidth consumption. Enter encryption and for the next year, everyone is safe. Now in an effort to curb encrypted Bit Torrent traffic, Rogers has started to throttle all encrypted transfers. That means your secure e-mail, login, and everything in between are all screwed and there’s nothing you can do about it except complaining directly to Rogers. → Read More
Forget about getting your hands on the iPhone, Canada, because Rogers, your only GSM provider, just said any and all information on the iPhone’s availability on its network is pure speculation. (Remember, the iPhone is a GSM-only device.) Not only that, but analysts also said that Rogers might not even carry the iPhone at all if it doesn’t prove to be cost effective. That’s what happens when you have a universal healthcare system. → Read More
Our hockey-playing, pot-growing neighbors to the north have got a new MVNO in town and the content it’s packing is looking pretty tight. Amp’d Mobile will be leeching off TELUS’ EVDO network to launch in Canada with plenty of content in store. Some of the features Canadian Amp’d customers will receive include streaming TV, 20 Amp’d video channels, Amp’d radio, partnerships with MuchMusic and the NHL for exclusive content, user content, and a hockey puck to the face. Now take a minute and digest that. Done? Good, because there’s more. Like the US, Amp’d Canada will offer users packages featuring unlimited calls and texting — one of the bigger turn-ons of Amp’d Mobile. Other partnerships include Adult Swim, UFC, Break.com, Fox Sports, MTV Canada, and a bunch of other Canadian-based channels. The initial phone selection hasn’t been revealed, but it’s probably no different than the US lineup of Helio phones. Oh and did we mention $.99 music downloads until September? Rockage, but Amp’d has yet to say if the classic 1980s hit “Don’t Forget Me” by Canadian act Glass Tiger will be available. Our lipstick and eyeliner are praying. Amp’d Mobile launches in Canada [Slashphone] Update: Johnathan let us know that Amp’d Canada is selling a custom RAZR V3M with a black and red paint scheme and 256MB microSD card included. It costs $300 CAN with no contract. Thanks! → Read More
To our dear readers north of the border: You will be getting the iPhone and it will be with Rogers. From an official Rogers rep: “Rogers is actively working with Apple to launch the iPhone in Canada as soon as possible and will be the exclusive provider of the iPhone in Canada. ” No other details are available at this time, but we’ll keep you posted as more information becomes available. Go Canada: iPhone Confirmed on Rogers Wireless [Gizmodo] → Read More
San Francisco, CA
