With visions of movies, TV, video games and theme-park attractions dancing in its head, the Walt Disney Co. said today it is buying Marvel Entertainment and its 5,000 comic-book characters for $4 billion.
Not as legendary as the FARK Photoshop threads of old, but entertaining nonetheless...
After spending tens of thousands of dollars creating and testing an online calculator designed to help consumers select their ideal wireless plan, Industry Minister Tony Clement killed the project weeks before it was scheduled to launch. Government records suggest intense lobbying this spring by Canada’s wireless companies, who feared the service would promote lower cost plans, played a key role in the decision.
I just renewed my contract with Fido today. Click here to see how that went...
Somewhere, somehow, Facebook started evolving into something that wasn’t very desirable. You knew MySpace was going downhill when you logged on one day and saw that you had a friend request from a bottle of Pepsi, or a can of Axe deodorant. With Facebook, it was logging on one day and seeing your mom, and your mom’s friends, trying to become your friend...
I also share a disdain for Facebook, but for different reasons.
For me it's seeing my real-life friends, all good and smart people, mostly ignoring the opportunity for high-level public discussion and choosing instead to celebrate the most inane things you can imagine.
Post something about copyright reform and there's nary a peep. But share a video with a talking goat and people are all over it.
So much for "wisdom of the crowds"...
The brand new N86 8MP uses a tempered glass fascia, with a metal sub-frame and slide, adding a superbly realised 8 megapixel camera and camcorder with useable digital zoom and with physical lens protection, plus 8GB of mass memory plus microSD, to produce what many have called the ultimate incarnation of the Nokia N95's form factor.
Prior to the announcement/leak of the N900, the N86 was looking to be my next handset.
Depending on when the N900 is released I still may pick one up...
Nearly 38 percent of people who use a cafe’s Wi-Fi say they make an online purchase during their visit, according to the findings of a report released today from mobile media company JiWire.
In addition, the iPhone and iPod touch are hugely popular with the cafe crowd, the report reveals. The two Apple devices account for a whopping 98 percent of mobile gadgets used in cafes with Wi-Fi.
My inspiration for passing this on comes from the first comment at the above link:
The number about online purchases made while in cafe wifi is alarming – unless every one of these folks understands wifi security, etc.
Eideard makes a very good point here...
The N900 is not directly competing with the iPhone. The iPhone is meant to make calls with and post to twitter, very little else. Comparing the two is like comparing a Netbook with a Scientific Calculator. The range of applications being made available for Maemo4 (the N900’s operating system) are MUCH wider than that of the iPhone.
I own a 770 tablet and have trialled an N810 and honestly, I've yet to see a killer app from Maemo.
But I think that will quickly change with the added utility of a GSM radio in the N900.
I am shocked that both Chow and Charlie Angus are allowed to openly depart from party policy and directive, obviously just to shamelessly buy votes among young people and academics. We intend on taking the NDP to task over this, and will accept nothing less than a retraction of Ms Chow’s statements and an apology.
Curse those young people for holding the keys to the future, and those slimy academics for making the Internet possible in the first place...
[/sarcasm]
For those who missed Thursdays town hall, here are some suspicious highlights:
- A lot of empty chairs to a supposedly at-capacity event;
- Tony Clement, minister of industry and chair of the meetings, talking out of turn on what was supposed to be a strictly regimented time allotment for speakers. It was a two-hour meeting that ended with Clement hogging the final six-plus minutes;
- Repeated speakers giving similar points of view;
- The Canadian music industry hogging almost all of the floor time.
And after seeing these results, and also reading reports that online submissions are being tampered with, it's impossible not to be cynical.
And here's some salt for that wound: Students last night weren't just barred from the microphones, but from handing out flyers, as well.
This is all getting really disheartening. Anybody interested in joining me for this?
FYI, I'm currently using Disqus on my Tumblr blog and IntenseDebate with Blogger...
- IntenseDebate
- JS-Kit Comments (formerly Haloscan)
- Disqus
Where did ‘Free Memory’ go?
iStat’s Free Memory function was removed at Apple’s request.
This decision was completely out of our hands. Please note that all other apps with Free Memory appear to have been removed or updated without their Free Memory function too.
Of course, you can always free your iPhone and avoid such B.S. -- or get something better...
8-)
/**
* gtk_helloworld-1.c
*
* This maemo code example is licensed under a MIT-style license,
* that can be found in the file called “License” in the same
* directory as this file.
* Copyright (c) 2007-2008 Nokia Corporation. All rights reserved.
*
* A simple GTK+ Hello World. You need to use Ctrl+C to terminate
* this program since it doesn’t implement GTK+ signals (yet).
*/#include /* EXIT_* */
/* Introduce types and prototypes of GTK+ for the compiler. */
#includeint main(int argc, char** argv) {
/* We’ll have two references to two GTK+ widgets. */
GtkWindow* window;
GtkLabel* label;/* Initialize the GTK+ library. */
gtk_init(&argc, &argv);/* Create a window with window border width of 12 pixels and a
title text. */
window = g_object_new(GTK_TYPE_WINDOW,
“border-width”, 12,
“title”, “Hello GTK+”,
NULL);/* Create the label widget. */
label = g_object_new(GTK_TYPE_LABEL,
“label”, “Hello World!”,
NULL);/* Pack the label into the window layout. */
gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(window), GTK_WIDGET(label));/* Show all widgets that are contained by the window. */
gtk_widget_show_all(GTK_WIDGET(window));/* Start the main event loop. */
g_print(”main: calling gtk_main\n”);
gtk_main();/* Display a message to the standard output and exit. */
g_print(”main: returned from gtk_main and exiting with success\n”);/* The C standard defines this condition as EXIT_SUCCESS, and this
symbolic macro is defined in stdlib.h (which GTK+ will pull in
in-directly). There is also a counter-part for failures:
EXIT_FAILURE. */
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
Yeah, I don't really understand it either... But it's reassuring to know that the barriers to entry are low to non-existent for would-be Maemo developers.
For more information check out Garage.Maemo.org, the Maemo equivalent to LaunchPad and SourceForge.
Last (uninvited) words: "this has been a sham" #copycon TO. Townhall
It was actually Smartphone Essentials where I read that erroneous piece on information...
More on my N79 to come!
Only a few days after the Free Software Foundation lauched the "Windows 7 Sins" campaign, Apple made a big bang with the release of Snow Leopard. What does the Free Software Foundation have to say about this newest version of proprietary software from Apple? As of this writing, not a peep.
Come on, it's worth a Digg at least...
This issue has arisen because of the large number of Canadians that have chosen to use the CCER submission form service. The service allows anyone to submit their comments by either using a form letter or modifying the content as they see fit. The government has decided to treat virtually all submissions from the CCER IP address as the form letter and simply added the relevant name to a single copy of the letter.
Despite this possible setback, speaking out on copyright in Canada remains a very worthwhile endeavour.
Remember to make your voice heard by September 13th!
Opera Mini’s success on GetJar shows that a globally available, open, cross-platform mobile application store can indeed make some headway in the face of the iPhone AppStore. GetJar boasts over 50,000 mobile applications for all major handsets and platforms – which is arguably better than the AppStore’s 65,000 iPhone apps that only work on the iPhone and are sometimes country-specific.
I've previously sung the praises of Opera Mini -- it really is the best mobile browsing experience out there, better than Safari on iPhone, even.
There, I said it. :-P
Recent events, such as the new specs of Maemo5 and plans for the future, as well as Mobile-Review’s full review of the unannounced Nokia N900 (or whatever they decide to call it), have signaled that Nokia does, in fact, have plans for the Maemo operating system. As such, we’re relaunching Tablet-Guru as Maemo-Guru, which I believe will more accurately represent the content we’ll be covering.
This is great news -- Ricky Cadden has long been an evangelist for Nokia's Symbian OS, and he and his team will undoubtedly be a great source for Maemo-related news as well.
You'll definitely want to bookmark this site...
No device is perfect, and the i8910HD is no exception. I recently read a forum post describing the i8910HD as “the iPhone of S60″ and I completely agree with that. Where it lacks in the smooth software experience that’s synonymous with the iPhone, it makes up for with impressive hardware that doesn’t let you down, combining several high-end features into a nearly complete all-in-one package. Even with its shortcomings, the overall speed and stability deliver a consistent experience for even the biggest power-users.
And it doesn't stop there... He also doing a live Q&A about this killer device at 8pm Eastern tonight on Qik!
Following last month's news of a Toyota Prius coupe coming to challenge the Honda CR-Z, another Japanese magazine reports that Toyota will use an Italian design firm to style the two-door.
I'd totally book that for an hour from aaaaZipcar...
Well, tomorrow’s the big day. The Palm Pre officially arrives in Canada on Bell. Honestly, I can’t wait… and for those that really, really, REALLY can’t wait, you may want to head over to Future Shop. That’s right, Canada’s favorite electronics retailer has already published the Palm Pre on their website as ‘available in-store’ for the outright price of $599.99.
$599.99 CAD is the unsubsidized price for Bell Canada's Palm Pre. You can get it for much cheaper with a contract, of course -- just make sure you know what you're getting into before you sign up...
More details will be revealed next week and it can not be stated enough how important this is at helping Nokia remain relevant going forward. In my open letter to Nokia earlier this month, I told them to become a bank. I hope this is the first of many steps in achieving that transformation.
As noted previously, mobile banking is already huge in Africa and parts of Asia.
Nokia's definitely got the presence worldwide to pull something like this off... Nice work, Stefan!
Do @hotamishchick, @shitmydadsays, and @DoWhatITellYou make this the golden age of 140 character comedy?
I'm all for this... No more 2-drink minimums or sitting through hours of crap to see the headlining act? Bring it on!
As Canada's Privacy Commissioner considers taking Facebook to Federal Court, the possibility looms that Canada will be the first country to deem Facebook illegal. Privacy lawyer David TS Fraser discusses what this means for Facebook, the Canadian Internet, and for privacy itself.
A brand-new episode of Canada's best Podcast is now live!
Sorry guys, have a really controversial meeting with nokia, decide not to publish todays preview. Have to show that i,m not blackmail nokia
I hope Nokia wasn't as hard on you as Apple would have been...
While this will change later this year, for the moment Rogers is the only GSM provider in the country. Since GSM has emerged as the dominant global wireless technology, this has had big consequences for consumer choice and marketplace competition. Most new devices, such as the popular Apple iPhone, are available only for GSM providers, meaning that Rogers has enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the hottest devices.
That change will likely come in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics, as Bell & Telus are widely expected to roll out GSM-based services to steal some of that sweet international roaming revenue from the only GSM game in town...
- Smartphone - 22.0%
- Netbook - 16.3%
- Notebook computer - 8.9%
- MID/UMPC - 0.3%
- Other - 0.3%
- Mobile phone is enough - 49.2%
- Don’t want to carry anything - 3.0%
And with TV tuners, bar code readers and mobile wallets why wouldn't they be?
Our sources at Google tell us in no uncertain terms that Apple rejected the application. And we have an independent third party app developer who tells us that an Apple Exec also told them back in July that the Google Voice Application was rejected.
In other words, there is strong evidence that Apple is, well, lying.
All hail the new Microsoft...
Today it was concluded that the three founders of the site are not the registered owners anymore. The site is in fact owned by and registered to a company called “Reservella” which is registered in Seychelles, and not any of the defendants named in the case.
It was further concluded that Fredrik, Gottfrid and Peter are broke, and that there are no assets that the record labels or any other the other plaintiffs can claim. This April the three were ordered to pay $905,000 in damages to compensate the entertainment industries, but it seems unlikely that the media moguls will see much of that.
Don't you just love happy endings?
8-)
Nokia is preparing a bunch of other touchscreen-enabled phones, some of which don’t carry thumbboards, yet target the same segment as the Nokia N97 Mini. One of them will be previewed tomorrow, and I think you’ll understand why the Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition and the Nokia N97 Mini have got a rival in the making and why Nokia will reveal only shortly before it lands on most markets.
The better shift-key placement and lack of a lens-scratching lens cover would be enough for me to recommend this device over its bigger brother.
But will it also come in white...?
Nokia is rubbish at user interfaces. Historicaly [sic], its systems are eventually well-enough liked, but that's because they've been improved step-by-step, and users have become acclimatised to the Byazantine mess of menus the company usually lays on a product.
Comparing any UI to Windows is a bit harsh, but I do agree that a pre-installed Linux distro would make Nokia's "Booklet" a more appealing product.
How hard could it be to whip up a non-touch netbook version of Maemo, anyway?
According to Rescuecom's Computer Reliability Report, Asus took the title of having the most reliable computers for the second time in a row for the firm's studies. Asus scored better numbers than Apple, IBM/Lenovo, Toshiba and HP/Compaq, in that order.
As the owner of two Eee PCs I can attest to these findings. Suck it, Apple!
The Palm Pre phone comes to the streets of Toronto days before the official Canadian launch.
The official Facebook fan page is here.
Thanks to IntoMobile.com for hipping me to this!
With a 1.6GB processor and 120GB hard drive this thing looks like it will have the same limitations as every other netbook on the market running Windows.
The only unique features I see here are a SIM card slot and an HDMI-out port. The All About Symbian guys are currently chasing down more details.
I wouldn't expect Nokia to be able to compete on price with cheap netbooks from Asia, so if you ask me they really needed better specs than this...
The webnatives has somewhat different user habits than your regular phone user. It’s important for these people to daily operate on the web where visits to popular webservices are part of their regular routines. They are somewhat heavy Internet users, likes to be on the cutting edge and be willing to try anything and everything out on their own. No, these types of people leading the social Web doesn’t need to be master programmers or multimedia experts. Hardly. But they at least try — and more importantly, understand — the features and how they might suit their purpose.
If so, then the Nokia N900 might be for you...
1. Child abduction: the fine is only like $25000.
2. Stealing the actual CD: the fine is $2,500
3. Rob your neighbor: the fine is $375,000
4. Burn a house down: The fine is just over $375,000
5. Stalk someone: The fine is $175,000
6. Start a dogfighting ring: the fine is $50,000
7. Murder someone: The maximum penalty is only $25,000 and 15 years in jail, and depending on your yearly salary, would probably be far slighter a penalty that $2 million.
A clever spin on the "are 24 shit songs worth $2 million USD?" question...
More info on the troupe here. And here's the awesome venue where we played.
Congrats all around!
Also a quick look at the LG Neon, currently one of the best handsets in Fido's lineup. And that ain't saying much...
Dear Minister of Industry,
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) was created for the purpose of ensuring broadcasting and telecommunications systems serve the Canadian public and ensure that Canadians have a wide variety of options to create and view works of media or communicate across the country and the entire world.
We, the undersigned, believe that the CRTC has become a burden on the Canadian public and are failing to perform their duties in the interest of the Canadian public and that of a fair and unbiased telecom policy.
In the last 3 years, we have seen the CRTC give undue preference in the interest of commercial entities and their preference for traditional business models over competing models that would create competition and help ensure that new business models can be created to entice and prosper original Canadian productions.
In the case of Bell Canada vs CAIP, involving the use of deep packet inspection (DPI) on Bell wholesale clients, the CRTC ruled in favor of Bell Canada to allow them to continue the use of deep packet inspection activities on wholesale customers without their permission or consent regardless of the implications for the end user customers. We believe this action greatly impacts the Canadian public’s choices, competition in the broadband market and may violate privacy laws based on the Privacy Commissioners findings.
In the case of Cybersurf requesting to match speeds of that for Bell retail customers, the CRTC ordered Bell Canada to produce a new tariff to match speeds for wholesale customers. Bell submitted a revised tariff to the CRTC, however the revised tariff did not fulfill the requirements as set out by the CRTC in Telecom Decision CRTC 2008-117. Bell proposed to offer lower speed tiers and introduce UBB (usage base billing) in lieu of matching speeds. The CRTC decided to accept the tariff on an interim basis with no logical explanation. This is not only anti-competitive but shows a clear bias towards Bell Canada.
These are only two of several instances in the past few years that show the CRTC is incapable of upholding the telecom act and the interest of the Canadian public. We demand that the commission is immediately dissolved and a new commission created and appointed based on the following criteria:
1) The commission members must not be appointed solely based on their career history
2) The commission members must not only be comprised of ex-telecom employees
3) The commission should be more transparent to the Canadian public about regulatory issues
4) The analysts should be more involved in the regulatory process to ensure that decisions are handed down in a fair and balanced mannerWe hereby request that the CRTC be dissolved and a new commission formed immediately to ensure that the regulatory process and competitive environment remain in tune with the needs of the Canadian public.
Sincerely,
The undersigned
The Canadian Radio-television & Telecommunications Commission's most infamous fail in recent years was not allowing German carrier T-Mobile to buy a controlling stake in Fido, turning over the keys to Rogers instead and in so doing creating a GSM-onoply in this country.
Oh, and they've also done next to nothing to promote homegrown cinema and television here...
Early reports also indicate a tornado touching down near Vaughan Mills and cars having been flipped on highway 400 as well as tornadic activity in the city of Toronto itself, but these have yet to be confirmed as the storm continues to move eastward. Reports, photos and videos have also lit up on twitter throughout the evening.
Man, is there anything Twitter can't do?
The first commercial for the new webOS Palm Pre on the Bell Mobility 3G Network in Canada, featuring unique features such as Synergy and Cards. Coming August 27th!
I played around a bit with a Pre at a Sprint Store in San Francisco. Palm's webOS is a thing of beauty.
Apparently back when Colligan was running Palm, he had a conversation with Apple CEO Steve Jobs about the trend, and Jobs wanted to put a mutual end to it. We don’t hear much about Apple hiring ex-Palm employees, though it’s a safe bet that there’s some back and forth. Anyway, Rubinstein (Colligan?) really didn’t like the idea.
Apple has become the new Microsoft, it seems -- in every way but the market share...
Remember Bruno? I’ve seen it, but I wish I had read the thousands of 140 character Twitter reviews that buried it, and convinced many moviegoers to skip it. The movie made 30 million dollars on the opening night, but the viewers failed to show the day after.
I haven't seen Brüno and I've no plans to -- hell, I challenge anybody to prove to me that it's anything more than Borat without the America-bashing...
Another triumph for Japanese TV! (^_^)
It won't become a hit, but at the same time the N900 is a milestone both for Nokia and the industry that won't just go unnoticed. The phone is supposed to hit the shelves late in 2009 and will go for 550 Euro (the price, however is subject to change).
Honestly, don't even bother reading this -- click right on through to Mobile Review's amazing scoop on Nokia's first Linux handset!
Maemo is cut from a different cloth than Symbian. It started out as a proof-of-concept project for Nokia on the 770 Internet Tablet and grew into a global collaboration of some of the brightest people on the planet. From this "fresh start," the Maemo 5 tablet (phone!) has to capitalize on all the strengths of other Nokia devices, compensate for all shortcomings, and smack Apple head-on.
Seems to me that if this N900 Rover is, in fact, a smartphone it will eclipse every other product that Nokia has released thus far this year...
I'd certainly be happy to re-trace my steps across America with it!
Can you see the image above? Me neither...
It's because said image has been embedded into many different pages and viewed some 39,623 times in the past thirty days, putting me an astonishing 7.5GB over the the 10GB of bandwidth per month that I get with my free Photobucket account.
Thing is...
I only wish to remind you all that there's no such thing as a free ride on these internets -- for more on that I'll direct you to Jason Scott's excellent essay entitled: "FUCK THE CLOUD".
Oh, and if you're reading this on after August 21st, 2009 my Photobucket bandwitdth will have been reset, and you should see the image at the top of this post.
The screenshots are working applications of Fremantle/Harmattan Maemo and demonstrates some of the design UI philisophy. These are real community widgets and open source applications that are available already from the Maemo community before the actual device and platform release. Enjoy...
While the Symbian Foundation seems hung up on branding, Maemo looks like it's ready to actually deliver a next-generation open-source OS.
Nokia World should be very interesting next month...!
Okay, so a friend and I run what we call the anti-Facebook on Ning -- a roll-your-own social network for whiners called The Wahmbulance:
Currently our tagline is "a place for crybabies" -- and some of our members are bitching that it's not descriptive enough.
If you'd like to have your voice heard have a look around the site to catch the flavour of the goings-on there, then cast your vote here.
Oh, and please don't vote for the one with all the meows -- because that would be disastrous...
After referring to S60 as “obsolete junk”, Murtazin lays down a screen capture of Nokia’s new Linux-based beauty. As we all know, this time around Maemo is destined for a whole lot more than just a few Internet Tablets that are filling a hole that isn’t there — that’s right, a whole range of next-generation handsets are in the pipeline and due to be fueled by Maemo 5.
BGR seems pretty confident that handsets running Maemo are on the way. Me, I'm not so sure... A tablet or even netbook that will take a data-only SIM chip seems far more likely for Maemo 5's debut.
That title comes courtesy of this post on Reddit.
Big media companies are pushing hard to make more activity illegal and to institute extraordinarily harsh penalties. They want your Internet provider to spy on your private communications to make sure you aren’t sharing anything you shouldn’t. They want to terminate your Internet access on the basis of mere accusations of infringement—with no need to prove you did anything wrong. They want to outlaw DVD players capable of playing legally purchased movies from Asia, Europe, or South America. They would allow teachers to critique popular culture without asking for permission—but then force them to destroy the lesson materials, and ensure that all students’ copies are also destroyed.
This is not hyperbole. In the United States, many of these measures are already a reality.
And be sure to check out the comments below the piece!
Much like Twitter’s hashtags, “Tag Channels” allow users to tag their content so it turns up in a new real-time search.
Separately, Tumblr is also releasing Facebook integration: photo posts, audio posts, videos and quotes are all properly styled to post properly to Facebook pages.
The changes come after a successful July for the company: 255 million pageviews were served that month.
Tumblr and Posterous are really blurring the line between blogs and social networks. Neither will let you archive your own content, though -- for that you're better off with Blogger or WordPress...
There's no good reason for Canada's noticeable failure to modernize our copyright laws in keeping with international norms – something we signalled we would do by signing the World Intellectual Property Organization treaties in 1997.
Make no mistake, WIPO is not an "international norm" -- it's the USA trying to bring the entire planet in line with their own rather unique perspective on intellectual property.
Do you really want to live in a country where college kids and single moms routinely get sued by big media?
LMMS is music creation software similar to programs such as GarageBand for OSX and FL Studio for Windows. Those programs are designed to streamline the process of making music with a computer in order to get new users into music composition as quickly and painlessly as possible.
I mean, you can't argue with the price, right?
One possible issue with LMMS might not be the app itself, but the audio drivers in your Linux Distro. I'm still trying to figure out which Linux is best suited for my old Mac Pro -- if you've any advice on that please leave me a comment over on my WordPress blog.
Adds that ground squirrel to any image
As opposed to an air squirrel...?
Anyway, great idea. Wish I had thought of it!
Thanks to Stefan at IntoMobile for bringing this to my attention.
For many mobile Linux users, being able to use a wireless connection is just a matter of finding the right tool. Here are 10 tools that will help you connect your Linux machine to a wireless access point. If one fails to work or install, try another. Eventually, you will get connected.
11) Buy a cheap WiFi-enabled PC Card on eBay.
