Bandwidth caps. We all love ‘em. Wait, no, we hate ‘em. Sorry. But even as AT&T gears up to impose bandwidth caps on its DSL subscribers, it should be pointed out that it’s hardly the only ISP that does so. You might even say that other countries have it worse. → Read More
Netflix may be forced to pay additional fees in order stay in business in Canada. The country’s Radio-Television Commission, the same entity responsible for that usage-based billing scare, is being pressured by traditional media companies (the likes of Rogers and Bell, of course) to levy the same local content production fee on Netflix that they have to pay. Needless to say, this really isn’t a black-and-white issue. → Read More
“Please note that we have identified an issue that may cause Internet usage shown on the site to be overstated in some cases. In order to ensure we provide reliable information to all our clients, the usage tracker will be unavailable while we resolve the issue. We apologize for the inconvenience.” And Bell Canada wonders why so many people hated the idea of usage-based billing → Read More
Canada’s Internet innovation-killing usage-based billing scheme may already be dead in the water. The Toronto Star says the decision has been made to reverse the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s plan to implement the controversial billing method, which would have led to a situation where people there could have expected to pay up to CDN$2.35 per gigabyte. The CRTC is expected to make its case in front of the House of Commons later today. → Read More
O, Canada, what have you done? The country’s Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the CRTC, has passed sweeping new regulations that will force Internet Service Providers to switch to so-called usage-based billing—metered pricing, in less flowery language. That means ISPs there will charge customers by the gigabyte for Internet access, and that’s on top of a flat service fee. There’s nothing particularly new about metered pricing, but the fact that it’s being implemented on a country-wide basis surely merits a quick discussion. → Read More
According to Moblicity CEO, Dave Dobbin, everyone’s favourite Gingerbread totin’ handset — The Samsung Nexus S — will be released through the company’s AWS brand come March. If you care not for AWS, then you’ll be happy to hear that Doctor Dobbs also said that Bell, Telus, and Rogers will also carry the hot new handset.
Jump on through the break for a video of Dave himself dropping the news. → Read More
According to a recent comScore report, Canada has beaten out the US, the UK, France, and everyone else in the world in various metrics relating to broadband and internet use. While the conspicuous absence of the likes of Sweden, a perennial leader in these categories, fills me with suspicion, the numbers are still fun, and slightly surprising.
One statistic calculated to both please and terrify is that, by comScore’s measurements, just over half the population of Canada is on Facebook. That amounts to about 16 million people — a drop in the bucket with Facebook’s user base — but it’s the proportion that matters. US usage is around 40% by some estimates, which is of course significant, but it’s fun that Canada has passed us up in this race. I’m guessing it has something to do with the weather up there. → Read More
Canada is testing the water for modular river turbines. The project, led by Renewable Energy Research, received $5.5 million in funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada and the government of Quebec. RER will install two turbines in the St. Lawrence River. → Read More
Here’s a candidate for the Canadian parent of the year award. Police in Richmond B.C. are looking for a couple that used their kids to load up on over $3000 worth of Blu-ray and DVD discs from Future Shop. The estimate is that the couple took between 80 to 100 movies. → Read More
Apparently it’s illegal in Canada to copy music from a CD you bought to an iPod (or whatever). It’s simply not allowed, even if you’re not breaking any DRM in the process. (In the U.S., it’s illegal to copy a DVD to your computer’s hard drive because you have to circumvent the copy protection in the process.) Solution? Some sort of levy, which would ensure that “artists” make money even though you’re not re-buying their music. → Read More
A new law in Ontario, Canada has banned the use of handheld devices while driving. This includes cellphones, GPS devices, MP3 players, etc. Slight problem: the law is broad enough that you can construe it to include doing things like changing the radio station or reaching for a cup of coffee. → Read More
You know what Canada looks like? It looks like the best part of town – where everyone is cool and gets drunk all the time without hangovers and where you used to go to raves when you were like 16 and now when you go back the rave places have grown up with you and become chocolate shops and classic book stores – but it looks like that all over the country. → Read More
Charlie Sobcov, an eight grader from Canada fell in love with birds on a trip to Costa Rica four years ago. He learned about decreasing bird populations due to global warming and another killer: windows. He found out that 500 million birds are killed by impact with windows annually in the US, Canada and Mexico. → Read More
The good ‘ol United States of America is going to employ Predator drones on the US Canada border within a few days. The unmanned arial drones have been used for years on the southern Mexican border, but they are now needed to keep a watchful eye on Canadians seeing that the US has a booming jobs market. After all, we need to keep Canadians from defecting as it’s common knowledge that Americans enjoy better health care, hockey, and maple syrup than our friendly, northern neighbors. → Read More
We spend most of our time searching for the ultimate convergence devices and I truly believe that I’ve found the one to beat. It’s the Pomegranate NS08 from Nova Scotia, of all places. The millimeters-thin touchscreen phone handles voice, web browsing, and e-mail with ease but also tackles tough tasks that no phone to date has attempted. → Read More
I have to say, as interesting a phone as the E71 is, I’m not sure a three year contract is something I’d be willing to agree to. I mean, who does anything for three years? Well, laying out only $50 for all the capabilities of the E71 — full HTML browsing, GPS, tons of stuff available for the S60 OS — is a pretty good deal if you’re already into that Symbian thing. Of course, it’s only available to Canucks at the moment, but if it sells I’m sure we’ll see more of it on this side of the 49th Parallel. If you’re the type of person who lives in Europe (a “European”), you can always go with the E63, although the performance problems I encountered in the E71 would be exacerbated in that little guy. [Mobilesyrup via Uber, Unwired] → Read More
Fresh off the his and hers Dodge Rams CrunchDeal comes a similar deal for his and hers Microsoft Zune players – if you live in Canada, that is. Pick up a manly 16GB Zune at $179 from Best Buy Canada (online only) and you’ll have a soft and sensual 4GB lady Zune added to your cart for free. Not bad… not bad at all. Microsoft Zune 16GB Portable Media Player [BestBuy.ca via Electronista] → Read More
We can jokingly say things like “buy a cellphone jammer to silence those annoying people on the bus” but that would be irresponsible. Quite irresponsible, it turns out, as criminals are now using such devices to impede law enforcement efforts. It happened last month in Canada. Two Mounties had pulled over a car, and as they approached to car their radios went out. It turns out that the two guys inside the pulled over car had turned out one of those $200 eBay cellphone jammers, putting the officers at unnecessary risk. This is a good time to remind y’all that using cellphone jammers is illegal in the U.S and most other places. In fact, a first time offender faces up to a $1,000 fine for using a jammer in the U.S. Seems to me that an iPod is a much cheaper way to avoid hearing a fellow commuter’s conversation. And anyone who uses a cellphone at a restaurant should be promptly shown the door. → Read More
A quick recap for those who haven’t been following the mobile browser scene for a while: Skyfire, currently available for Windows Mobile 5/6 and S60, is the only mobile browser supporting full Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, Quicktime, and other processor intensive multimedia formats. It pulls this off where others fail through a bit of proxy voodoo; rather than forcing your handset to do all the legwork, a remote computer crunches as much as it can before sending it your way. Skyfire had remained in private beta until recently, just opening its doors last month. With the announcement that the beta was now public, a number of folks around the globe were disappointed to realize that it was only open to US residents. When we asked Skyfire for an international ETA, they responded that it would be coming “in weeks, not months.” While it’s still limited to North America, Skyfire announced this morning that they’ve expanded their turf to include Canada. Starting today, Leslie Nielsen and Celine Dion can enjoy Skyfire in all of its splendor. The rest of Canada can use it too, of course – but come on, share your health care system or something in return. If you’re north of the border and itchin’ to dig into some Hulu on the go, go grab Skyfire here. → Read More
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1863410&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1 It doesn’t get much more easy to relate to than this, folks. This endearing team, Mr. Chow and Mr. Lau, will show you a super easy way to tether your iPhone after jailbreaking it. Of course, most people who know to jailbreak their phones are already clued in to the whole tethering thing, but if you’re still new at it — and I’m looking at you, new-iPhone-owning brother of mine in BC — these Canada-specific but easily localizable instructions should make things simple for you. Even if you know this stuff already, it’s worth it to hear the kid at the end saying “Apple rules?!” [via Hack n Mod] → Read More
