Google begins shipping Nexus One in Canada, Verizon version soon expected, smartphone war intensifies
Google today announced the availability of its flagship Nexus One smartphone on the AT&T network and on Rogers Wireless in Canada.
The company is offering the Nexus One directly to consumers for use on either of the two networks for $529, without any telecom subsidy in sight at least for now. There is no comment from the two carriers as to whether or not they would subsidize the device.
The Nexus One is currently offered exclusively through T-Mobile in the U.S. priced at $179 on a two-year term.
Google originally announced it intended to offer a version of the Nexus One for use on the Verizon network by spring 2010. Reports today indicate the Verizon version could launch on March 23, 2010.
Canada’s third-largest mobile telecom today confirmed the company will further diversify its product line by offering tablet computers.
The confirmation came from David Fuller, the VP of product marketing today.
The comments raise speculation as to whether Telus will offer the Apple iPad. The iPad is slated for an April 3rd U.S. launch, with the device being available in Canada by the end of the same month, according to Apple.
Mr. Fuller confirmed the iPad is in fact compatible on the new Telus network, but did not further elaborate.
We can confirm Microsoft Corporation is working on its own iPad competitor, dubbed Microsoft Courier, but the company has yet to officially acknowledge it is working on such a device. Judging from recent leaks, the device seems more advanced and intuitive than the iPad, but the iPad still has a major competitive advantage, the app store. Microsoft Courier is reportedly to launch by the end of this year.
The top telecoms in Canada, including Bell, Telus, and Rogers, today completed testing a new video-calling service that will be compatible across all networks in Canada.
Video-calling in Canada is not as popular, or in the United States, for that matter, but in Canada, the feature requires both parties to be on the same telecom network to actually work.
The new system (3G-324M standard) that the big three telecoms today finished testing would allow users to video-call people across any of the networks, making it the largest video-calling network in North America.
No information relating to possible availability was released.
Microsoft unveils next-generation Windows Mobile OS, entirely revamps it
Microsoft Corporation today unveiled Windows Phone 7 Series, the operating system that will power the next generation Windows Mobile handsets.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona officially unveiled Windows Phone 7 Series. Mr. Ballmer told the crowd, “Windows Phone 7 Series marks a turning point toward phones that truly reflect the speed of people’s lives and their need to connect to other people and [accomplish other] seamless experiences.”
The long awaited Apple iPad finally debuts, but we’ll be waiting for the next-generation model
After speaking with a lot of people, I find there is still much ambiguity over the features of Apple’s latest creation, the iPad, and what the device is and is not capable of doing.
The iPad is also missing a camera, multi-tasking support, Flash support in Safari, and unfortunately, it’s limitations don’t stop there.
People that have used the iPad to demo a movies (with the 4:3 viewing ratio) argue the iPad would have been better in widescreen, making watching movies more enjoyable. But Apple wants you to use the device in any orientation as you choose, so making it widescreen might have been prohibitive in that regard.
After much anticipation and speculation, Apple Inc. today finally unveiled its tablet computer, the Apple iPad (see more pictures). Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the device at an invite-only press event in San Francisco.
The iPad is only a half of an inch thick and weighs just 1.5-lbs. It is powered by a 1GHz Apple A4 processor and will come in three flavors: 16, 32, or 64GB sizes. The 16GB version will retail for $499, the 32GB for $599, and the 64GB version for $699. The 3G version will cost an additional $130 per model.
Other features include an accelerometer, WiFi, Bluetooth, among other features. It operates on the same operating system as the iPhone and does run applications from the app store.
Update 1: Google has in fact unveiled the new Nexus One phone, and it is now available for purchase. The Nexus One product page is now also live on the Google website. Head over to Engadget who is blogging live from the Google press conference.
Google has announced an Android press event on January 5 at its Mountain View, CA headquarters, where the company will unveil the first mobile phone it would be selling to consumers directly, the Google Nexus One phone.
The phone will be offered through T-Mobile and will be priced at $530 unlocked, or for $180 with a two-year term that requires customers to add voice, text, and a data plan for a minimum of $79.99 per month.
The Nexus One will be powered by Android 2.1 with a 1GHz processor, and will include a 3.7-inch display (480x800px resolution), 512MB of ROM and 512MB of RAM, GPS, an accelerometer, a 5MP camera with LED flash, among other features.
We’ve seen a lot of things happen in 2009, some things were expected, some were not, some were shocking, and some were simply never seen or heard of before.
From the biggest Ponzi scheme ever seen in U.S. history, to the global financial credit crisis, to historic health care reform championed by the first black President of the United States.
A lot has happened in 2009, and we’ve compiled it all up for you with the top 8 topics of the entire year.
1. The Global Financial Crisis
With the near collapse of the global credit market, and unprecedented actions being taken by global leaders to stave off a global economic meltdown, the financial crisis was plastered in the media almost every day and even became a primary presidential voting issue, thereby making it the story of 2009. With billions provided in emergency bailout loans to financial intermediaries, Wall Street was still paying millions in bonuses with outstanding government loans, while millions of Americans faced forclosurer and high unemployment rates. The Obama administration later moved to block $165-million in AIG bonuses alone and later blocked bonuses from being paid while the financial intermediaries had outstanding government debt. Warren Buffet’s company Berkshire Hathaway even reported its biggest loss ever (only its second loss in its history). There were also opportunities for firms to act on, such as Disney who acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4B. Despite households losing significant amounts of money primairly from their positions in risky equity positions, some did profit (though not for too long)…Bearnie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison following a conviction for operating the biggest Ponzi scheme ever seen in U.S. history that saw $50 billion defrauded from investors.
A concept of what an Apple Tablet computer could look like
According to a report published today by the Financial Times that only cited “people familiar with the discussions”, Apple should officially unveil its much-anticipated Tablet computer as early as February 2010.
Apple has explicitly denied it is working on such a device.
The device will very likely support the iPhone apps from the App Store, and will likely be a cross of OS X and the iPhone OS. It is very unlikely the tablet would include OS X found on regular Mac machines.
The Financial Times report also says Apple is preparing to launch a paid online television subscription service sometime in 2010. According to reports, Apple is approaching publishers such as Time, Disney, and CBS to offer content through iTunes.
The BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) today has finally fixed a flaw that left North American users without BlackBerry Messenger, sporadic email delivery, and no web browsing yesterday and late into the morning today.
This interruption of service marks the second BlackBerry service outage in less than a week, the last one occurring on December 17.
The BlackBerry Curve was the top selling smartphone in the United States in the first quarter of 2009, giving RIM a 50-percent share of the total smartphone market in the U.S.
RIM most recently posted strong Q3 2009 earnings and added 4.4 million new subscribers in the quarter, bringing the total BlackBerry user-base worldwide to 36 million.
RIM blamed a flaw in an updated version of the BlackBerry Messenger app for causing the outage. The company is encouraging users to upgrade to the latest version 5.0.0.57 of BlackBerry Messenger. Just remember to upgrade first.
RIM spokeswoman Rachel Colley confirmed today in an email that the problem has been fixed.
A service interruption occurred Tuesday that affected BlackBerry customers in the Americas. Message delivery was delayed or intermittent during the service interruption. Phone service and SMS services on BlackBerry smartphones were unaffected. Root cause is currently under review, but based on preliminary analysis, it currently appears that the issue stemmed from a flaw in two recently released versions of BlackBerry Messenger (versions 5.0.0.55 and 5.0.0.56) that caused an unanticipated database issue within the BlackBerry infrastructure. RIM has taken corrective action to restore service.
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Colon cancer is one of the leading causes of death. Irrespective of family history, everyone is exposed to the risk. About 90% of colon cancer cases begin from non-cancerous tumors, polyps, which could form in the large bowel. Screening with a colonoscopy will painlessly remove any polyps hence almost entirely reducing your risk of developing the horrible disease. The good news is that about 90% of colon cancer cases are preventable through a simple (yes, simple) colonoscopy.
With the near collapse of the global credit market, and unprecedented actions being taken by global leaders to stave off a global economic meltdown, the financial crisis was plastered in the media almost every day and even became a primary presidential voting issue, thereby making it the story of 2009. With billions provided in emergency bailout loans to financial intermediaries, Wall Street was still paying millions in bonuses with outstanding government loans, while millions of Americans faced forclosurer and high unemployment rates. The Obama administration later moved to 
The BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) today has finally fixed a flaw that left North American users without BlackBerry Messenger, sporadic email delivery, and no web browsing yesterday and late into the morning today.
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