Court Rules Against Rogers ‘most reliable network’ Claim

 

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of British Columbia barred Rogers from making claims that it has Canada’s “most reliable network” for mobile phones. This comes from a compaint lodged by Telus Corp. that Rogers no longer could claim it had the ‘most reliable’ or ‘fastest’ network in Canada since both Bell Canada and themselves had launched their HSPA netwrok, which of course uses the same technology as Roger’s HSPA network. Bell Canada had recently been running ads touting its network as the ‘best’ in Canada, which Telus obviously hasn’t complained about since it runs on the exact same network.

Ironically though, Bell actually uses the phrase “Fastest, largest and most reliable” in describing its netwrok on its website.

Telus’s website claims it 3G+ coverage is four times greater than that of Rogers’, which makes me wonder why they haven’t instituted some coverage map vs. coverage map ads like Verizon has in the U.S. It may be possible that they know Canadian courts can be more stringent that U.S. ones when ads hurt other companies feelings. Probably because Canadian companies always play second fiddle to American one’s anyways, and there’s no need for infighting.

 

Bunyan

We’re All Gonna Look Like This Guy Soon

Thanks to legislation that will eventually ban the use of cell phones while driving, we’re all gonna end up with ridiculous headsets.  Most people now wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a Bluetooth headset, but trust me, once everyone else is doing it, so will you.  It’ll be a toss up for some people.. there’s a couple factors that need to be weighed in.

• How bad do I need to make this call
• What will happen if someone I know drives by me and sees me
• What are the risks of simply using my cell phone as opposed to my Bluetooth headset
• Do I even care what others think

Chances are the business people will fully adopt the headset first, with the general population trickling in behind.  Hey, doesn’t this sound like the initial plan for Bluetooth headsets?  Maybe once the legislation kicks in headset manufacturers will finally have their day.

Blue

eBay “Deals” App Helps Saavy Shoppers

Alongside an upgraded version of its shopping app for the iPhone and iPod Touch platform and an enhanced mobile website, eBay today introduced a free new app into Apple’s App Store called Deals, which provides a constant stream of deals from across the hundreds of millions of eBay listings. It features simple navigation, customizable search features and even PayPal integration, which basically takes away any excuses for you not to purchase another pair of “authentic” Gucci sunglasses.

This release comes with news from eBay that mobile purchases through its site are growing in the double digits every month. This has resulted in a rate of one mobile purchase every two seconds. The company has also stated that it expects mobile sales to top $500 million by the end of 2009

The app is increasing eBay’s social media presence by allowing shoppers to share their buying activity and get opinions about their purchases from friends on Facebook and Twitter.

One of the biggest impacts I could see this having, especially during the busy and high expediture holiday season, is saavy shoppers using it to find bargains online while they shop in stores. Instead of outright buying a product they like, they can search for that product right in the store on eBay using Deals to find it at a better price.

Google Makes Coupons Go Paperless

Just in time for Black Friday and the Holiday shopping season to follow, Google has introduced the ability for you to bypass the coupon clipping and  show coupons to merchants directly from your cellphone.  Through Google’s Local Business Center (LBC), small and large businesses alike can register on this Google listing for free and allow people to locate them through this single portal on their mobile phones.

Now companies are able to add coupons to their listing, and they will immediately be listed in a section on their company’s page. They also have the ability to edit their coupons incase of errors or overuse due to extremely low advertised prices. These listings can be accessed easily from your mobile browser through google.com/lbc.

The main problem that has been popping up is the inability of barcode readers to read the barcodes from the screen of the phone. This will most likely cause companies  to simply make custom ads for phones that include a code like the one featured in the above picture. The only other seems to be the inability of people to find local business on LBC at all.

Bunyan

AT&T Is Now Offering Pay-As-You-Go Internet

Too bad they have it capped out at 500MB for 30 days. 500MB in 30 days? Please, even the iPhone offers 3GB packages on a monthly basis.  I guess the point of this is for people who only need the internet for a certain amount of time.  For example, say I’m going on holidays for a week or so and I don’t think I’ll be able to live off of a wi-fi connection, I would probably purchase a 500MB package to keep me going for the week.  500MB just isn’t practical for anything else, if someone sends you a picture over email, thats a handful of MB’s right there.

Pay as you go data coverage for notebook computers is a pretty rare feature.  Nowadays in Canada, the major mobile carriers seem to be really pushing to sell their mobile internet keys on three year contracts.  But I’m unable to find any pay as you go options.  Internet keys make sense.  Heck, I’d love to be able to browse the web on my laptop while on the go as opposed to my stupid HTC Touch.  It seems that with all the talk of cloud-computing and now the push for mobile internet keys, the companies that matter have recognized that data on the go is a necessity, which makes our lives better.

 

Blue

Apple App Process Shows Lack of Coherence Once Again

2 news stories broke today that again made Apple’s App application approval process for its iphone look completely retarded

First we found out that Apple O.K.’d a  99 cent Google Wave app fir the iphone. Basically all this app does is allow you to access from your iphone, even though it was proven over a month ago that you can simply go to it on your mobile browser for free. The app in fact was not even made or endoresed by Google. It was created by Clapps, a small games developer for the iphone and ipod touch. Basically the only reasoning I can see behind this app being approved at all is that Apple wanted to find some way to make money off of the over-hyped Google Wave. The only reason I think they chose to do this instead of trying to straight-up block access of Google Wave on iphones is that they may have actually learned from how ridiculous they have looked throughout their war with Palm to keep them from being able to sync itunes on their products.

This also brings to mind the most ridiculous approved app of all-time, “Asian Boobs”. I don’t know how they are able to keep a straight face doing this.

Today we all realized that the Facebook app on our iphones was broken for everybody and that our social lives hadn’t actually just fallen to pieces. Joe Hewitts recent outrage at and departure from the strenuous application process have left the rest of us shaking our heads. If a professional software engineer who creates updates for the extremely popular Facebook app can be turned down, what are the chances that an amateur programmer’s app that he/she spent six months developing will make the cut. Apple really needs to realize how big of a deal this is and fix it isntead of just making newer versions of its phone every six months to try and draw our attention away

Bunyan

Windows Mobile and Palm App Stores: Why Bother?

With, officially, over 100,000 apps in its app store, and countless more available for jailbroken iphones, Apple is an indomitable force when it comes to app options on its phone. If that wasn’t enough, enter the Open Handset Alliance’s, a.k.a. Google’s, Android marketplace, which already boasts five figures worth of apps in its short history. That leaves us to ponder the possibilityof another smartphone OS’s app store, especially a closed source one.

As Windows Mobile tries to stay above the surface and “compete” by running on mid-level phones, surprisingly even several of HTC’s smartphones run it. These phones though pale in comparison to the front-running Droid and HTC Hero that run Android 2.0. HTC’s commitment to Windows Mobile is obviously diminishing. With only 800 apps, I don’t even understand why Microsoft would bother pouring money into such a poor comparison which offers less than 1% of the selection of its competitor. I thought this company would have realized the pointlessness of trying to compete with the dominant industry player (That has been you with PC OS’s for the last 15 years dude). Unfortunately, Apple and Google’s approach to making technology cool has worked for them, and your lack of doing so has left you cool in the 90’s. Stick to PC’s Bill; I hear good things about Windows 7.

The demise of Palm itself has already been forecasted and likened to the downfall of Apple in the 80’s. As previously criticized by gizmodo, Palm’s App Catalog has been featured in the news for introducing new apps simply because it has so few; 413 as of Nov. 20. This again makes you wonder why a company would enter a market like smartphone apps in a closed-source format when it so greatly pales in comparison to its competitors

Why did these companies decide to go at it alone instead of joining Google and countless other companies on Android? Maybe they truly believe they can emulate Apple and make there phone the next iphone, just like Mac thought it could make their OS the next Windows 95. Sorry Windows Mobile and Palm, you are forever destined to become the phones offered for $0.00 on 3-year contracts.

Bunyan

Canada Sucks (well at least its mobile phone market does)

November 5^th, 2009 marked the day that Telus and Bell Canada left their fantasy world of believing they really were ‘competing’ in the Canadian smart phone market, and the beginning of them temporarily actually doing so. This is the day that the 3G network jointly-developed by Telus and Bell will went into operation, over two years after Rogers launched theirs. For us who have Telus as our mobile carrier, this means that we are now privy to such modern phones as the HTC Hero, Blackberry Bold 9700, and of course the iPhone 3G[s].

Although this should feel like we are being brought up to speed in the world of wireless communication, I am left feeling unsatisfied, as it is a rare, and momentary, occasion. I am constantly frustrated when I read about a cool new phone being released on Verizon or T-Mobile in the U.S.  knowing that there will be a major lag until it will be released in Canada; if it is at all. Many carriers, including Verizon in the U.S. and Rogers have even begun developing 4G networks. Rogers has stated that is will have theirs running by Summer 2010, while Bell and Telus have only recently begun talks on developing one of their own. Come Summer 2010, Bell and Telus will once again enter their fantasy world, and I will hate myself for having signed another three year contract.

With its ruling on October 29th barring Globalive’s entrance into the Canadian wireless phone market, the CRTC went completely against its much publicized stance on increasing competition in the wireless market to lower prices for Canadian consumers. We will see if Industry Minister Tony Clement’s review of CRTC’s decision will change anything. Hope still lingers for change though thankfully with the expected launches of DAVE Wireless and Public Mobile in the next few months. Stephen Harper has yet to weigh in on the subject, most likely due to his recently announced cross-country beatles cover tour with Yo-Yo Ma.

Bunyan

In Case You Didn’t Know, Sales of Smartphones Will Continue to Skyrocket.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reuters reports that the wireless chip industry forecasts that 2010 will be another year of rising sales for smartphones.  Is this supposed to come as some sort of a surprise?  2010 will likely welcome the introduction of a 4G networking to North America, bringing with it smarter, faster phones, and prices that will begin to drop.  When comparing the cost of cell phones and rate plans in North America to identical plans in Asia and Europe, our prices seem ridiculous.  However, with more and more companies entering the smart phone market, prices for the handsets are bound to fall; the market is no longer a place for just Palm, Apple, and HTC.  For example, Motorola was the manufacturer of the hit RAZR, but has pretty much stayed clear from the North American smartphone market until their recent, highly publicized release of the Google-powered Droid.  Google’s Android operating system is set to land on a handful of phones in the upcoming year, creating excitement for anyone who’s looking to buy a new phone.

The fact that we’re still referring to new phones as smartphones seems a little out dated.  We’re no longer living in a world where owning a smartphone means you walk around with a holster and stylus.  Almost any phone you put your hands on has the capability to browse the internet, the only difference is, some have 3G, and some don’t.  As competition between carriers heats up with the arrival of new phones, we should also expect a drop in our data packages because soon, all of our phones will be running on the same network so there won’t be a need to charge different prices to access different networks.  Everyone knows that cell phones are one of the current hot topics, but thanks for the heads-up Reuters.