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Smartphone Ownership in Canada Now 54%, Up From 36% in 2011, Study Finds

54% of wireless customers in Canada currently own a smartphone, up from 36% in 2011, according to the J.D Power and Associates 2012 Canadian Wireless Total Ownership Experience Study.

While more customers use smartphones in 2012, compared with 2011, the study found that the brands they select are shifting. Among smartphone owners in this study, 33% use Blackberry, down from 42% in 2011. Apple (30%) and Samsung (13%) have each increased their share by 4% from 2011.

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By 2016, 57% of Smartphone Owners Will Use Their Own Device at Work: Forrester

According to Ms. Brownlee Thomas, principal analyst at Forrester, the impact of mobility on the business practices of organizations will be as important as those caused by Internet.

She stated that the needs related to mobile devices and applications varied among groups of employees within an organization. Information workers are supported by the IT department and the performers of tasks have their mobile devices and applications dedicated. On the other hand, the workers concerned can use their mobile devices to work without formal IT support, while "nonconformists" select, purchase, and use their own equipment and apps for the job.

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Canadian Mobile Payments Adoption Ranks Second in the World

Mobile payments are set to go mainstream in the next one to four years and Canada is one of the leaders on this front.

MasterCard recently revealed the MasterCard Mobile Payment Readiness Index, which analyzed the state and adoption of mobile payments across 34 countries worldwide. The Index takes into account three types of mobile payments, which are person to person (P2P), mobile e-commerce (m-commerce), and mobile payments at the point of sale (POS). It also looks at consumer readiness, environment, financial services, infrastructure, mobile commerce clusters, and regulation.

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Don't Count Traditional Television Out Yet: It Still Dominates Media Ad Spend

Traditional television may have a lot more competition than it used to, but don't count it out yet: it still dominates most media in ad spending, and growth in that category actually remains on the rise. Nielsen reports that television ad spend was up almost 5% in 2011 in the US, reaching more than $70 billion.

Meanwhile, internet ad spending was just 8% of that at $6 billion, and newspapers and magazines combined for only $28 billion. Cable TV ad spending has climbed more than 40% since 2007—a sign that the medium is still alive and healthy.

Television commercials average 28 seconds long. Automotive commercials are by far the most popular in the US—they represent over 14% of all money spent on TV ads. Fast food restaurants make up about 6% of spending.

Forget the Annoying Boss: It's Malfunctioning Technology That Canadians Hate Most at Work

When it comes to workplace dissatisfaction, 40% of Canadians cite malfunctioning technology as their number one office complaint, according to a recent survey commissioned by Toshiba of Canada. The survey also revealed that while most Canadians deal with workplace stress through conventional means, such as grabbing a coffee or taking a walk, 11% of men use technology failure as an opportunity to flirt with colleagues.

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The Interactive Shift: Mobile Sensor-Based and Physical-Based Tangible Interaction

QR Codes, augmented reality, NFC, motion-based video game technology, RFID, and more have been much debated real world-virtual world technologies. They allow for users with smartphones to interact with mobile communication technologies independently. While all are at various levels of popularity, Ana Serrano in the 2012 Stratford Report believes the latter are just first-generation examples of mobile interactivity.

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Privacy Commissioner: Canadian Businesses Are Not Protecting Your Personal Data

Canadian businesses are storing your personal data. Unfortunately, they're not protecting that data.

A new survey by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada released today found that many companies in our country are not using passwords effectively to protect private information. 39% do not have mechanisms that ensure the difficulty of passwords while 27% never require employees to change their passwords, according to the results of the study.

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