Three months in, the iPhone is great, but I don't deny that there isn't appeal in an Android phone. Though young and unpolished, Google's mobile OS has, unsurprisingly, tight integration with Google services. Much like my own brain, tightly integrated with Google's mail, calendar, reader, maps, photos, and, oh yeah, search. Synchronization between Google services and Blackberries or iPhones had been weak in the past, but some official and unofficial solutions have emerged.
Gmail access on any smartphone has been easy and supported ever since they implemented IMAP. Their help provides setup information for major devices.
Today Google announced that Google Sync for Blackberry can now synchronize your Gmail contacts, in addition to Google Calendar events and alerts. Any changes made on the Blackberry will sync back to Gmail/Calendar. This also makes moving to a new device easy.
For iPhone users, its slightly harder because Google can't have it's own app running in the background synchronizing changes. NuevaSync is a solution that I've been running without issue for a couple months now. The iPhone supports Microsoft Exchange for mail, calendar, and contacts. NuevaSync acts like a Microsoft Exchange server and serves as a middleman between your phone and Google for bidirectional syncing of calendar and contacts. The service is currently in beta, and also supports syncing contacts from Plaxo.
Google has released a major update to their Google Mobile App for iPhone with a nifty new feature that you'll see geeks demoing at parties for weeks to come. That feature is voice recognition. Launch the app, hold the phone up to your head, speak your search query, and in about six seconds you'll have a list of results. If your query is location-relevant, like, per se, "sushi", you'll be given a list of results that are closest to you. Beyond the voice features, the location-awareness is also unique to the app, as a Google search in Safari has no way of knowing your location. Also, the results page that it returns is better formatted for the mobile screen than searching in the browser.
Is it gimmicky? Somewhat. Is it faster than typing? Generally yes. How well does it work? Acceptably well. Andy Baio of Waxy.org attempts to deconstruct how the voice recognition works. The recognition happens server-side, with the app seemingly sending only 100-300 _bytes_ of pre-processed data.
In my testing, the app worked well with common terms, place names, and names of notable people. Being Google, you can also use it for unit conversions like "100 Canadian dollars in US dollars" or "50 miles in kilometres". Fans of the Simpsons will be amused that it took two tries to get "beat up Martin".
Previously, we covered the Canadian wireless spectrum auction, which promised to increase wireless competition with seven new companies awarded licenses. One of these new entrants was Shaw Communications, acquiring $190M worth of spectrum in BC, Alberta, Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, and Northern Ontario. Unfortunately, the Globe and Mail reports that everyone's favorite elephant-in-the-room, Global Economic Uncertainty, has led Shaw to put off plans to launch a wireless service for "at least a year".
During the time Mr. Shaw and his team weighed options, economic conditions deteriorated, giving the executives even more confidence in their ultimate decision. In a bad economy, families stay home and watch more television, so the company has decided to invest in its cable offerings for now, such as adding more high-definition programming.
"We felt it more prudent to develop our core business right now, and not divert any of our attention away from our mainstream products. It's like you don't want to buy the neighbour's house when your house isn't fixed up," Mr. Shaw says. "It's really about where do you put your money and at what time. And we think this is the best spot to put it in right now, and that the time will come for cellular."
People prefer TV in a recession? Bothersome, but valid. I'd say people will also prefer the Internet, but I suppose that still falls under Shaw's core business. A new wireless service would have to compete aggressively on price and service, and the ROI on building out wireless infrastructure is likely not strong enough at this time.
This move in contrast to other spectrum buyers Quebecor and Globalive. Quebecor recently announced plans to go ahead and make use of their spectrum space with an $800M 3G network in Quebec. Ontario and Western Canada should still see some wireless competition courtesy of Globalive, which has pledged to launch wireless service in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa, starting in the 2nd half of 2009.
Shaw has experienced rapid and successful growth within the cable, satellite and telecommunications industries over the last several decades. With... [more]
Canada: true north strong and free, and "hotbed of movie piracy", if the victim statement of Mark Christiansen, VP for Paramount Pictures, is to be believed. That's what was read at the trial of Richard Lissaman of Calgary, 21, who has become Canada's first person convicted under new movie piracy legislation. Lissaman attended the opening of "Sweeney Todd" with a concealed camera with the intent of recording the movie, and at some point mid-film, the house lights went up and Calgary police arrested him. Theatre staff were likely patrolling the theatres with night-vision gear.
Lissaman pleaded guilty and given a $1,495 fine and 12 months probation. As part of the probation terms, he is banned from any movie theatre and from owning or possessing any video-recording equipment. He got off fairly easy given that he could have received a prison sentence of up to 2 years. Previously, authorities needed to prove that a cam movie recording was intended for sale or distribution, but under new laws starting June 2007, any image recording without consent could result in jail time.
[Judge] Skene said if one compared Lissaman's crime to shoplifting, it was not like someone stealing a loaf of bread or litre or milk for personal use but like someone taking a cart of meat to be re-sold for profit.
Unfortunately, neither of those comparisons are apt. Pirating a movie is copyright infringement, not stealing. Taking a cart of meat is stealing, wherein an actual unreproducable item is taken. The defendant didn't break into the projection room and steal the film reels. I would expect this kind of deceptive doublespeak from the movie industry, but not from a provincial court judge.
While I believe this law is ridiculous and represents a scary slope of our law-enforcement being willing to work as lackeys for the movie industry, I don't defend breaking the law. However, I believe there was an error in the court's judgement. The judge is quoted "You can say he and his pals will watch the movie, but he has an item that is more supportive of taking something to be used to make a profit. It's not a simple theft of an item for personal consumption." Likely correct that the recording wasn't for personal consumption, but very likely wrong that it would be used for profit.
The nature of the movie piracy/warez scene in North America is it's done for fun and reputation, not profit. Unlike in many Asian or third world countries where pirated material is often burned to disc and sold in markets, here in North America files are exchanged freely over the Internet. There's just no market for pirated materials here. Warez groups compete for the honour being the first to release a new movie, or for releasing the best quality copy, but make no money for their time and effort.
Further, within the warez scene there is low demand for low quality cam-in-theatre recorded copies of movies. The vast majority of pirated movie distribution originates from higher quality DVD-ripped copies. Sometimes a DVD-rip will emerge even before the film is released in theatres, bearing markings of promotional copies that are sent to reviewers and industry insiders.
"We would have liked to see jail time, sending a stronger message. We hope this is just a starting point," -Virginia Jones, director of policy and legal affairs for the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association
Yes, putting this kid in jail, at taxpayers expense, is EXACTLY what we need to stop piracy. Not embracing digital distribution, making better movies, improving the theatre experience, or lowering prices, but throwing a youth in jail with the real criminals. This is what happens when industries give up on competing and turn to fear-mongering and bullying.
Two other cases of cam recording in Montreal will be back in court this December and January. For another take on this story, see Torrentfreak.
Via the Globe and Mail, the Canada Revenue Agency is stepping up an investigation into high-volume eBay sellers and whether they've reported the full amounts of their revenue. The investigation goes back to 2004, including about 10,000 people. Under scrutiny are PowerSellers, users who sell more than $3,000 a year and receive benefits from eBay for it.
The CRA's investigation has been stymied by eBay Canada because it has refused to turn over information about PowerSellers. The company argued the information was stored on parent eBay Inc.'s computers in the United States and beyond the reach of the CRA. It also argued the CRA's probe was too broad and amounted to a "fishing expedition."
The dispute landed in court and last week the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed eBay's arguments. The court ruled the company has easy access to the records "with the click of a mouse," putting them within the bounds of the CRA.
The court ordered eBay Canada to hand over the names, contact information and gross sales figures for the PowerSellers. The company said it will start turning over the material next week.
Some PowerSellers argue that the aggressive tax probe is unfair because many PowerSellers are amateurs who don't treat their activities as a business and may not have complete back records. eBay Canada seems to have resisted releasing data until there were no avenues of appeal left. It's reassuring to see that they are willing to stand up that far for user privacy. I don't defend anyone cheating their taxes, but I suspect there are worse tax cheats out there than eBay sellers. At the end of the day, you can't escape the tax man, and even if you don't treat your activites as "professional business", the CRA just might.
Richmond-based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates was awarded a $40 millon contract today from the Canadian Space Agency to design and build the Radarsat Constellation Mission. The set of three Constellation satellites will provide, for the first time, continuous complete weather coverage for all of Canada, and will have a resolution of 3m, able to spot small fishing vessels. They will replace the current Radarsat-2 satellite, launched in December 2007, that MDA also built.
This comes after a government intervention last spring to block a $1.3 billion sale of MDA's satellite and robotics division to a US defence contractor.
The proposed $1.3-billion sale sparked national outrage over the loss of taxpayer-funded technology, especially Radarsat-2, which is designed to protect Canada's sovereignty.
Prentice blocked the sale in April after determining the deal was not "of net benefit to Canada."
Radarsat-2, launched in December of 2007, became an issue not only because of its importance to sovereignty, but also because under the previous contract, MDA — and not the Canadian government — actually owned the satellite.
This was the first time in 33 years that an industry minister blocked a foreign takeover. Under this new contract, which has been 2 years in the making, the Canadian government will own the new satellites.
MDA provides advanced information solutions that capture and process vast amounts of data, produce essential information, and improve the decision... [more]
Today a TransLink iPhone app was launched on the iTunes App Store, which was created by Vancouver's Handi Mobility. The app is near identical to the m.translink.ca web app launched last month, providing schedule information for any route or stop in the system, but it uses PhoneGap (a made in Vancouver, open source solution) to run locally on the device. This allows it to load faster than the web version, and also use phone hardware features like geolocation. Whereas the user previously had to enter a stop or route number, the app now suggests a list of stops closest to your current location.
On Translink's Buzzer Blog Handi's Igor Faletski talks about how reasonably priced data plans have enabled applications like this, and shares some stats.
Our company is focused on mobile internet and its applications. We were just waiting for the day that Vancouver could get affordable data rates so more people could access our services. Then the iPhone launched, had affordable rates, and provided a rich visual experience. Put together, we needed to make sure TransLink could get to that audience.
...
In terms of actual statistics, NextBus SMS serves up to 16,000 text messages a day. When we launched the iPhone portal, traffic to that application grew 300 percent in one month. There are more than 1000 users on it every day and the number keeps growing.
Translink is the first transit system in Canada to have produced it's own iPhone app, but other systems do have third party options. Over east in Toronto, riders of the TTC have the very attractive and functional Red Rocket. At only $1.99, it's the #2 paid app in the "navigation" category. For Montreal, there is the $0.99 STM Mobile with full schedule features but no geolocation.
The leaves are falling and that means it's awards season. Vancouver-based Invoke Media received 3 nominations and 2 Davey awards, honouring small ad firms. The two awards, Silver in the Branded Content: Video/Films/Movie category and Silver in the Not-for-profit category, were for the Wells Fargo Someday Stories campaign, using their Memelabs platform.
This is the second campaign that we have run successfully with Wells Fargo, and they have been incredible to work with as they continue to showcase creative outreach strategies, setting new marketing goals and initiatives with a keen focus on community development, on-line interaction and the alignment between brand and Non-Profit.
It's phenomenal to be acknowledged for this campaign. Invoke is extremely proud to be honoured, especially due to the nature of the campaign. We love supporting non-profits and you can expect many exciting projects similar to this to be announced in the future. — Nadia Nascimento, Invoke Media
Congrats Invoke on this recognition. Earlier this year Memelabs won a New Media BC PopVox award for Best User Generated Content site.
Invoke is an Award Winning Interactive Agency that specializes in transforming ideas into tangible results executed within a complete interactive... [more]
Professors might scoff at the herds of students wandering campus with those signature white iPod earbuds, but starting this semester at the University of British Columbia, those students may have been learning. This fall, UBC joined Apple's iTunes U program , wherein school content is made available for free download through their own section of the iTunes Store . Files can be restricted to enrolled students-only, but the majority is available free to all.
"If you are a student, you probably don't know how to find UBC web content because it's spread across university websites... We know students use iTunes, so this collects what UBC has and takes it to their environment," says Alfred Hermida, who helped to pioneer the British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) news website as a journalist before joining UBC in 2006.
Other Canadian institutions doing the same include the University of Western Ontario, the Banff Centre, Queen's University, and Université de Montréal. UWO also started this semester and doesn't have any lecture content up, but has used it for other content like convocation addresses, school news, and recordings of student council meetings. Pacific Northwest schools on iTunes U include the University of Portland, Pacific University, and Seattle Pacific University. In total, over 75,000 audio and video files are hosted on iTunes U from 150+ institutions in the US, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and the UK.
It's great to see schools embracing new technologies, and that they can be presented in a way that's accessible to both instructor and student. Students get learning materials through the media player that they probably already have installed. Instructors are given an easy platform on which to host their content; UBC's page provides basic audio recording and editing instructions using free software. And everyone gets the benefit of all the free educational content available through iTunes U.
