In Canada, Rogers is the only wireless provider that will be offering the iPhone.  They are the only ones with a GPRS network capable of 3G, so the monopoly is technological, not just contractual.  When they released their pricing, it certainly showed their monopolistic tendencies.  In fact, Rogers is known for charging ridiculous fees for the most basic of services.

After a national campaign and thousands of people joining the Facebook group, Rogers definitely felt the heat and eventually modified their pricing, allowing 6 Gb of transfer per month for $30.  While this is far from the unlimited plan that other providers offer, it is certainly a step in the right direction. 

For most users, making use of email and even web surfing won’t use that 6Gb per month. YouTube videos can have a tendency to use up your allotment, but you’re more likely to do that over wifi at home or work.  The problem is that, like their internet services, suddenly use of the product is always second-guessed.  It’s only natural that if you know there is a limit, you will be conscious of it and only use the device if you need to. This of course limits the use of the device. We’ll see if it limits the enjoyment!

For us, sitting out on the cottage deck on a Sunday morning with a coffee and a newspaper has been the tradition for three generations. This weekend, we brought our son Jack, the fourth generation, up to the cottage for the first time. There was no coffee for him, and he didn’t read the newspaper (he can’t even talk), but something tells me that as he grows up, he won’t ever partake in this tradition.

In fact, with the immenent death of the newspaper, he may not even have the option. Between social networking, blogs and news sites, the print newspaper could be a thing of the past. Sitting on the deck reading his Laptop, iPod, Kindle or a device not yet concieved, connected to the world via wifi seems more likely.

We had a visit on Saturday morning from our friends at Rogers. We had them update the wiring and install high-speed internet for the cottage. Wifi? At the cottage? Outrageous!… Isn’t it? The purists would argue that the cottage should be an oasis away from the urban jungle, an escape from work and a sacred getaway. It doesn’t need to be.

The cottage is a change of scenery, a great place to get some needed perspective. I do some of my best work at the cottage, specifically because it is a change of scenery. The bottom line is that having an Internet connection up there simply means I’ll go up more often, and for longer periods, with the peace of mind knowing that I’m not going to miss an urgent issue, or an important email. Cellular coverage is spotty at best, so a high-speed line is more stable.

Summer weekends are far too precious, so anything that allows more trips up north is a good thing!

So the iPod Touch and the iPhone have an accelerometer in it. They use it to detect when you tilt the device sideways and it will auto rotate your photos or whatever with it.

What a waste! This thing is ridiculously accurate! With a hacked OS, you can load up 3rd party apps. There is a game that turns your iPod into a Labyrinth! The accelerometer is so accurate you can turn your iPod into a level, or steer a car in a driving game!

So give Apple this great sensory input, and what do they do? Allow you to tilt your photos? Lame!

When the iPod Touch was first released, my initial thought that this was a device that could be built upon. Like a home computer or a laptop, this tiny device had enough processing power to incorporate some really great features. Built in WiFi, MultiTouch screen, and an accelerometer would give this device a real advantage over the previous generation PDA’s.

Don’t fool yourself. If Apple have their way, the iPod Touch, and the iPhone will never achieve their potential. It is a closed system. All applications have to come from them. Even their forthcoming SDK (due next month) will only allow developers to distribute applications through them. It is a shortsighted and crippling vision.

The best way to take this device to the next level is to open it up and see what the development community wants to do with it. Like Windows Mobile and the Blackberry, open it up so that people can load up their own apps. Companies created their own inventory applications, communications tools, actual productivity stuff.

So, at MacWorld this week, Steve Jobs announced that they were taking applications for the iPhone and making them available on the iPod Touch… for a $20 upgrade fee! Well, there is a way to open up this great platform…. and a hacking we will go…

The first big shoe has dropped. Warner brothers has announced that they will no longer support HD-DVD and focus its efforts on promoting Sony’s Blu-ray standard as a high definition medium.

As much as I would prefer HD-DVD to take and keep the lead, this has got to be a blow to Toshiba and the HD-DVD camp. The good news: one way or the other, we’ll have a winner in the format war, just in time for both formats to be obsolete.

Back in January, Apple announced their revolutionary new iPhone. It was a great device, but it’s ties to AT&T really crippled it. First, their Edge network leave much to be desired. Secondly, and most importantly for me, is it limits it to the U.S. market.

We were all waiting for the functionality of the iPhone, without the Phone. I already have a phone. What I want is an updated iPod, which I use everyday. One that doesn’t feel like its 2003 again. Read the rest of this entry »

Apple sent out invitations to a “Special Event” on Wednesday, September 5, regarding an iPod announcement. Is this the next gen iPod we’ve been waiting for?

Now this is cool. Take a look at Microsoft Surface. When I first saw this site, I thought it was another cool concept like the iPod Packaging or, more recently, the oFone.

This isn’t a concept (well, not completely). It’s available to corporate customers, for restaurants and such. Some of the fancy features with Wi-Fi cameras are probably a future add on. Gates was on the Today Show this morning showing it off.

Pretty cool.

In 2005, the U.S. enacted the Energy Policy Act which changed the date we “Spring Forward” from the first weekend of April to the first weekend of March effective this year. So one month ago, we shifted forward by an hour to help save energy (with minimal success).

Many of our household devices are designed to make this change for us, shifting forward in the spring and backwards in the fall, so that we don’t have to worry about it. While some devices, like computers, can automatically patch themselves, others like digital watches are hard-coded into their firmware.

So when March 11 came along, we found those devices that did not change themselves automatically, and made the change manually. Well guess what? Those devices are about to shift forward again this weekend! Don’t get caught looking at one of these clocks, or you’ll rip yourself off of an extra hour of sleep!

And yes, we will go through this again in the fall, but the date will only move by one week this time.

The long anticipated MacWorld keynote was today, and Steve Jobs confirmed the worst kept secret in technology circles, that Apple is about to release the phone of all phones, the iPhone. Yes it looks really cool. Yes, it’s a phone and an iPod. Yes, it can surf the internet and Google maps and Yahoo mail.

No, you can’t have one. It’s not coming out until June (Q4 in Europe, 2008 in Asia). When it does come out, the 4Gb model will be $499 and the 8Gb will be $599.