Are things changing in the Canadian mobile carrier space? It sure seems like it. Fido recently changed their logo and gave their entire website a makeover. There a no longer cute dogs all over the site and the new branding is a dog house, but no dogs. So not really a big deal right? Bell changed their site and logo this summer too, but the real change for Fido was in their removal of system access fees, something that is quickly becoming very unpopular in Canada. My fee was over 7 dollars a month, and that really adds up over time, and what’s it for? It’s basically a hidden fee and that’s what stinks about it.
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Google released Google Earth for the iPhone and iPod Touch today. I’m a huge fan of the PC version of this great application and have killed many hours traveling this virtual world known as Earth. If you have never tried out Google Earth then I highly recommend downloading it now. You can view the entire planet in 3D, see photos, read Wikipedia entries and download different data overlays. This only scrapes the surface, but it’s an incredible application, and best of all, it’s free.
So how does Google Earth hold up on the iPhone? Well obviously it’s a bit trimmed down, but still much better than I thought it would be. You can see photos, Wikipedia entries and move around the earth in the typical intuitive Multi-touch way that we are all so used too. You can even twist two fingers to rotate, and if you tilt your device the accelerometer kicks in and allows an angled view so you can see the 3D surface of the Earth. You can also use the iPhones GPS to find your current location on planet Earth. The application runs fairly smooth on the iPhone, but I did notice a few hiccups which sometimes even happens on the full Google Earth.
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I am a little late with this, but today was Blog Action Day 2008, and this years topic is another issue I am passionate about and that’s poverty. I try to give aid whenever there is a terrible disaster somewhere and I have a sponsored child through World Vision. Late last year I sponsored a second child for my Mother. It’s a strange feeling doing something like this, although it feels great knowing you are helping in a very small way, it also makes you very sad to know that people live in such poverty, especially children.
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There has been a load of buzz over the past few days about Apple’s new MacBooks. Rumours of a sub 1000 dollar laptop along with speculation of a new manufacturing process that allows Apple to produce them for less are fueling the buzz. The new laptops are being code named “brick” and it may refer to a new manufacturing process.
On Tuesday, October 14th Apple has invited media to a special notebook event, so the wait to find out if the rumours a true will be over tomorrow. AppleInsider has more details and photos of the laptop.
Techcrunh also has details on the new laptop and CrunchGear will be there for the announcement.
(update: Engadget will have Live web coverage of Apple’s “The spotlight turns to notebooks” event.)
The days of physical media are almost over. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Blue Ray disks bite the dust in a few years and I’m not the only one, but that’s another topic. The future is online and the only thing really holding back online adoption by the masses is clumsy DRM punishment for customers who buy music and movies online. Most people don’t even know what DRM is, but they do know what it means when they find out they can’t copy a song from their favourite device to their new computer (I’m looking at you Apple). This is severely annoying and the industry still doesn’t get it. We have been able to rip, share, and use our CDs and DVDs on any device we saw fit, but unfortunately this is not the case with our downloaded purchases. The industry needs to stop locking down things we paid for! Stop treating your paying customers like criminals, the people pirating this stuff will continue to do so and you only hurt legitimate users.
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If you bought an iPhone 3G in the US, Japan, Canada, Mexico or Several Latin American countries you may need to ship it back to Apple and get a replacement.
From Apple:
Apple has determined that under certain conditions the new ultracompact Apple USB power adapter’s metal prongs can break off and remain in a power outlet, creating a risk of electric shock. We have received reports of detached blades involving a very small percentage of the adapters sold, but no injuries have been reported.
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Lets face it, most of us hate change, even if it is for the better or in the form of progress. You hear it all the time with technology, “Oh who really needs that”, or “The Internet is a fad”. Sometimes it’s something smaller like oh… I don’t know… “I hate the new Facebook design!“.
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Google Chrome was officially released today and of course being the Geek that I am I had to download it at work and at home and yes I am writing this blog entry from Chrome. Although I have not spent a long time with it, so far I like it, and for a first beta launch it is remarkably polished. This of course is nothing new for Google — they have a reputation of releasing extremely polished beta products. I also fully expect Chrome to be in beta for at least two years, but by then everyone will long since forgotten that it is a beta.
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The web is buzzing with news of a Google browser. The news was launched via a 39 page comic. The browser is called Google Chrome, and at last check the site was offline but rumour has it that it will be back online tomorrow. Google has also announced on their blog that they sent out the news a bit early by accident. Personally I think they may have just been trying to generate blog sphere buzz and it has worked
This is really big news and probably really bad news for Microsoft. Google has already released Gears a browser add-on which allows Google to jump start browsers ahead into more modern standards. Chrome will use webkit, the same engine that Safari uses, but it will not use the webkit Javascript engine. It will use it’s own, which should make apps run much faster and with more features.
Could this really be Google’s entrance into the desktop market? I believe the future of applications is online. Everything is headed in that direction. More and more people are accessing their apps and data in multiple places and on multiple devices, and right now the major player in that space is Google.
Update: Google Chrome - first impressions are the most important
More info at TechCrunch:
Meet Chrome, Google’s Windows Killer
First Images of Google Chrome
No Joke: Google Introduces The Chrome Browser With A Cartoon
In a survey by Wired, Canadians may have one of the fastest 3G iPhone experiences in the world. There’s even a cool interactive map of the world showing the results. I guess in the case of Rogers expensive does mean better. That said, it always makes me chuckle when I see the extremely high download claims followed by ridiculous limitations, although the iPhone has admittedly made Canadian options better. Basically we have great speeds that allow you to instantly use up your bandwidth allocation and pay the telecoms big overage fees.
I have to admit that with the smallest 400 MB package I can easily surf, read email and chat every day without worrying about going over my limit. I could however easily surpass this limit if I did not stay away from YouTube and streaming radio, something that I don’t really need but none the less would be nice to have. Luckily for me, Toronto has a lot of WiFi hotspots. That said, I still look forward to the day that the big three have more competition, and that day is approaching quickly.
Another interesting tidbit is that many of the 3G connection issues iPhone users are facing are now being reported on the Blackberry Bold. This shows that the issues may be with the carriers and not the handsets themselves. As much as I and others love to blast Rogers, my Fido (Fido is owned by Rogers) connection has been fantastic, and I have only experienced one dropped call in the three weeks I’ve owned an iPhone. With the price I pay I would expect nothing less.
