BlackBerry Curve coming to Virgin Mobile Canada

The BlackBerry Curve is coming to Virgin Mobile Canada. It will be $99 on a 3 year. Unlimited personal/work email and instant messaging are $15 on VMC.

6 comments October 6th, 2008

RuinedIPhone.com

After Rogers and Fido released their “great” iPhone plans a petition has surfaced to voice your disapproval.

Everyone would like to say “NO THANKS” to Rogers/Fido for screwing our iPhone Canadian dream with poor data/voice plans. If you consider these plans not suitable, please sign this petition. On July 11th 2008, we will send a printed copy of all these messages to Rogers HQ to demonstrate our indignation toward them. We would like to say “Thank You, You” for signing this petition and helping the iPhone cause in Canada.

At the time of writing this post 17 547 Canadians have signed to petition!  Add your name to the list, follow the link below.

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52 comments June 30th, 2008

Rogers and Fido Release iPhone Plans

Rogers and Fido have both release plans for the 3G iPhone which is launching July 11th around the World.  No unlimited data is available for Canadian consumer where American’s will get it for $30/month from AT&T.  All plans will require that you sign new three year contract.  Signing up on Fido will get you per-second-billing for the same price as Rogers’ per-minute-billing.  Existing Fido clients will be able to use their FidoDollars to upgrade to the iPhone 3G.

Links:
Rogers News Release
Fido News Release

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7 comments June 28th, 2008

Blackberry Bold Video

Here the Blackberry Bold video:

FYI, the extra ‘button’ on each side is for the cradle.

11 comments May 21st, 2008

Blackberry Bold Preview

Okay, here it is; our very brief preview of the new Blackberry Bold AKA Blackberry 9000 AKA Meteor.

Our Bold is a preproduction unit. Things might change from now till when production units are available.

Compared to the previous series the 9000 brings all the various 8000 special features like GPS, WiFi, camera and puts it all in one device. You also get HSDPA (3G), a higher resolution display, faster processor, more user storage space (1GB), 3.5mm stereo jack (standard size so you can use your iPod’s headphones), external memory card slot (not internal) along with an extra side button and a possibly iPhone inspired look (I think of the look as ‘iBerry’).

Software-wise you get the latest version Blackberry OS 4.6. The most notable features of 4.6 is a more modern looking browser, new menu skin (it has animated menu icons and is more readable text because it’s high contrast).

Here’s the tour: If you look at the edges the Bold looks just like an iPhone except instead of being chromed (shiny) it’s a matte finish. The keys are very similar to the 8800 except they’re slightly flatter and have a bit more travel to them. I also found that I was less likely to accidentally press neighboring keys on the Bold – I’m not sure why. The trackball feels about the same.

On the left side there’s a hole for the left speaker a 3.5mm headphone jack, mini USB connector, voice recognition (convenience) key and Micro SD card slot. The last ‘button’ is for the cradle.

The right side has the other speaker, the other cradle connector, camera button (convenience key) and volume buttons.

On top you get a mute button, the power button has migrated to the END key (for better or for worse, probably for better since it was kind of confusing to have 2 identical feeling buttons on top).

The bottom has the microphone and rear cover release key. I’m not sure what the other hole is for

The screen has a resolution of 480×320 which is noticably sharper than the 8800′s 320×240. Text is crisper, that sort of thing. The finish on the screen cover is more matte and doesn’t reflect as much light. It’s also noticeably brighter. It reminds of the first gen (current gen) iPhone.

The plastics used in the Bold feel a little cheaper than the 8800′s. One difference though is that the Bold will have a pleather back (or so I’ve been told – the one I have is just regular plastic). The Bold’s also slightly lighter which makes it feel less substantial. Their footprint’s are about the same, though the Bold has more curves.

Out going sound quality is terrific. Incoming doesn’t have much his but it’s slightly muddy sounding. Hopefully this will fixed in the production version.

The speaker is really loud and has reasonable fidelity.

Software wise the menu’s look has been updated. The new browser renders pages like they would on a desktop computer. Aside from those 2 changes the Bold doesn’t feel all that different.

RF wise the Bold is noticeably better than the 8800. It’s able to place and hold onto calls where the 8800 can’t. Sound quality is also noticeably better. What’s great is this Bold is a pre-production unit so RF and sound quality might get even better (who knows?).

It’s too soon to conclude much but really with the exception of the build quality (which is slightly worse) the Bold is a noticeable improvement in almost every aspect.

We’ll have some more pictures and possibly a video later so stay tuned.

31 comments May 20th, 2008

Rogers launches Nokia n95 8GB

The Nokia n95 8GB is a great phone. If you’re Canadian and been itching for a carrier branded version complete with carrier customizations your wait is over.

Rogers just announced that they’re going to be carrying the n95 8GB. It’s going to be 399.99 on a 3 year (not sure if that’s on a Vision plan) or 599.99 straight up. The n95 8GB will be locked to Rogers.

One of the data plans available for it is 20 bucks a month, unlimited on device browsing (using Nokia’s terrific s60 browser), 2500SMS, “100′s” of MMS (the Rogers guy’s words) and unlimited web email. If you sign up on a 3 year then you also get unlimited Vision. The $7 unlimited on device browsing plan is also available.

If you add your own apps or use the Nokia email client (for POP or iMAP) then data is billed per kb (so don’t use your Slingbox unless you have WiFi). I asked how they can differentiate between the different types of data. One guy said they use deep packet inspection (the same thing Rogers uses to throttle bittorrent).

There are the typical Rogers customizations; separate Vision app, Music store that doesn’t work with the built-in music player, that sort of thing. It also appears to come with Telenav (which you have to pay to use) – Nokia’s mapping program is also available.

While I’m not thrilled with the customizations, I’m lukewarm about the plans. The data plans are incredibly limiting but the n95 has a pretty good browser so that makes things a little easier to bear.

2 comments May 2nd, 2008

Samsung DuoS

Samsung DuoS (SGH-D880)

image from Mobile Gazette

For those of you that have use more than one GSM service provider at a time but hate carrying around more than one phone, the Samsung DouS is for you! This innovative phone allows you to use two SIM cards both at the same time, even from different providers. This great idea from Samsung has only been announced for Russia and is set to hit shelves next month retailing for 18000 rubles ($707CAN/$721USD). The only drawback to the phone is that you can expect not to get any discounts from carriers for signing a contact as it will be impossible for them to lock it down. Let hope we get to see DuoS over here in Canada and the United States.

Source: Mobile Gazette

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1 comment October 8th, 2007

One Million iPhones sold!

Originally Apple was aiming for the beginning of October to reach this milestone, but Sunday marked the one millionth iPhone to be sold! It has also been less than one week since Steve Jobs announced the $200 price drop of 8GB model and the discontinuation of the 4GB model.

In response to the ‘AT&T Employess finally get iPhone discount‘ article that suggests Apple and AT&T lowers the price tag everyone…they must be listening!

Associated Press

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4 comments September 10th, 2007

AT&T Employees finally get iPhone discount

Finally after the long wait, AT&T is offering their employees a small discount on the Apple iPhone. Employees are now able to get a whopping 10% off their iPhone’s $499/$599 price tag. A slightly lower price tag would be nice for everyone… in case AT&T/Apple is listening as well.

Source: Gizmodo

7 comments August 18th, 2007

Sprint to launch hot new devices by years end

Sprint is getting set to launch some hot new devices such as a new tiny Palm Treo (Treo 800) featuring Palm OS and a totally new design. Also Sprint will be getting a new HTC smartphone which will be similar to the HTC Touch and should sport Windows Mobile 6, 2 megapixel camera and HTC’s special touchscreen software. Last but not least will be RIM’s BlackBerry Pearl 2 in a CDMA format which is sure to be a hot seller. Other handsets Sprint will see include a new small Sanyo and a more updated LG enV.

Source: GearLog

Add comment August 18th, 2007