Popular music streaming service, Slacker Radio, announced a free, basic service tier for Canadian users. From here on out, Canadian users don’t have to worry about 30-day trials any longer, as they can enjoy Slacker Radio 24/7. If you’re really into music however, the Slacker Radio “Plus” tier costs only $3.99/month and offers such things as unlimited song skipping, complete removal of ads, and song caching for mobile devices.
Canadian cellular carrier Rogers, took time Tuesday to unveil their new HSPA+ router, which will allow up to 15 connected users to enjoy Rogers’ faster data network to the tune of 7.2Mbps-21Mbps. To achieve the latter, customers will have to pay an extra $10CAD ($9.80) per month in order to make use of those higher speeds. Furthermore, Rogers customers will be required to subscribe to a data plan that totals at least $35CAD ($34.30) per months. With that said, the most affordable $35CAD plan offers up a paltry 3GB per month. Clearly, if you want to use this router for anything other than very basic web browsing, you’ll need to set aside a fair amount of change.
As for the hardware, interested users will be able to pick up the new router for $150CAD ($147) when purchased with a two-year contract or $300CAD ($294) sans contract.
Canadian GSM carrier Rogers, revealed a plan today to charge customers based an added fee for priority access. The way the plan works is simple. In times of overloaded network capacity, users who pay an added fee could have their data packets given priority over other, non-paying users. While no actual fees have been stated, $10 has been heard mentioned a few times in passing.
Now, we don’t even have to begin to go into how wrong this is. From a business standpoint, it’s great. You can charge people $10 extra for a service you’ll rarely ever have to offer them. With that said, the plan is unsurprisingly receiving criticism because of how it will “reward the rich and punish the poor”. We all understand cellular capacity and bandwidth are being strained. But there has to be a better way. What do you think? Would you pay extra for priority access? Finally, is it even right/ethical/legal?
For now, we don’t have to worry too much. Rogers has no plans of rolling out the feature — they’re merely gauging public interest. At the same time, none of the other competing Canadien cellular providers have vocalized interest in such a plan.
Bell Mobility customers will soon have a new reason to speed — down the interwebs that is. Starting November 23rd, interested users will be able to pick up the Novatel Wireless U547 which will not only support the carriers super speedy 21Mbps speeds, but the even faster 42Mbps network as well. The small caveat is that Bell Mobility will be charging 42Mbps users an extra $10/month to enjoy the extra speed. Though thankfully, it isn’t mandatory that you pay the extra $10 for the Novatel Wireless U547 either. It will still run at the slightly slower 21Mbps tier just fine.
November 23rd. Bell Mobility. $199.95. Any takers?
The soft launch of RIM’s BlackBerry App World Storefront may have been nothing but a teaseearlier in the week, but now it’s as official as official can be. The online purchasing, review read/write process, and management of BlackBerry apps can now be done via your browser, with the resulting info automatically sent to your phone.
BlackBerries have come quite a ways since the pager-style days. But some things are still easier and faster on a desktop computer — in this case, browsing/reviewing apps.
To get in on the action, download the App World Installer and install it on the PC you wish to use. And just in case you were wondering, you can now pay by Carrier billing, Credit Card, or PayPal. Hoozah!
Looks like the rumored axing of the BlackBerry Storm 3 was off. Above you you’ll notice a very clear, “Storm 3″ listed in Verizon’s in-store system. Excitement is wanning however, with specs that were old news last month.
Still, something is better than nothing, right? Though with all the talent cropping up, is the Storm 3 even that relevant anymore?
While Google’s private 1Gbps network may be the talk of the town when it comes to raw internet speeds, expansions of said speed isn’t likely to happen for years if not decades. Something a little more immediate is needed. Here in the States our broadband portfolio is pretty disappointing, with only a few options north of 50Mbps.
The lucky residents of Quebec can toot a different song on their horn, however, as the province’s Videotron has taken the wraps off of their new 120Mbps down/20Mbps up package. The only sticking point that seems kind of sour given the C$160 (C$150 if bundled with phone or TV service) monthly price is the data caps — 170GB down/30GB up. Granted, I can put a hurtin’ on a ISP’s pipes, 170GB is way more than I use in most situations. Going the other way however, 30GB isn’t exactly the roomiest of options.
You win some and you lose some I guess. Fast speeds bring fast caps. So be it. I’d be happy with something other than my lethargic 6Mbps AT&T service at my house, let alone 120Mbps speeds with 170GB caps. I’d do it.
Bittwesweet news for BlackBerry 9650 this morning — OS 6 has been spotted on your beloved VZW Bolds just as RIM had promised it would. However, there are a few caveats to deal with. First and foremost, just because RIM said it could happen, doesn’t mean it will. Verizon has the latest and greatest in testing. This we can see. But it is completely up to Big Red to actually go one step further push the update to end users. Of course, VZW has opened up quite a bit over the last couple of years. As such, there’s no real indication they’re going to keep slightly older hardware out of the loop.
Second, and perhaps more worrisome is that the official OS 6 toting 9650 in the possession of BBLeaks is showing some fairly high amounts of lag, even with 512MB of RAM. Again, worrisome news for 9650 owners, but even worse news for 9700 and Pearl 3G owners of whom both are also suspected to get OS 6 as well — and with half the memory to boot. With half the memory of the already laggy 9650, OS 6 on the 9700 and Pearl 3G doesn’t seem as great as it once did.
Hopefully RIM can tweak the OS more to run on these few supported classics. Of the 9650, 9700, and Pearl 3G, who’s planning on upgrading the OS and who’s jumping all the way in by getting the 9800 Torch?
Have an itch to get your hands on the latest and greatest BlackBerry OS?! Never mind the simple fact that the Torch is the only BlackBerry that has a working version of OS 6 and the fact that it’s not even for sale yet. Small beans they are. For the true CrackBerry user, merely having the 1′s and 0′s that make up the best effort from RIM yet is enough to send chills down your spin.
Fair enough. Go and get it: BlackBerry Torch OS 6 download.
AT&T’s Data Throttling Threshold Is Based On Black Magic And Unicorns.
[Update 4] Free At Last – A5 Untether Has Been Released!!
AT&T Needs To Cater To Lite Data Users, Better. 300 MB Isn’t Going To Cut It.
Fight: HTC Rezound vs. Samsung Galaxy Nexus vs. Droid RAZR.
The Evolving World of Software
Hands On: Cheers For iOS.
Review: BodyGuardz Mykase & UltraTough Clear Case Friendly ScreenGuardz
Review: Phonak Audéo PFE 232 Earphones.
Speck CandyShell – Review & Roundup
Review: id-America Spark Earphones.
Mystery HTC Device (Incredible 3?) Spied With Android 4.0, Sense UI 4.
Another Day, Another Google Wallet Security Bug.
HTC Further Details Android 4.0 Update Schedule, Beginning In March.
Motorola: We’re Slow With Android Updates Because We Make To Much Hardware, Install Custom Skins.
Tweetbot 2.0 Is Out! Here’s What’s New. (It’s Awesome).
When it comes to marketing your product it's essential to understand the visitor patterns in your shop. Heatmap software allows you to do just that by producing reports and visualizations that help you make the best decisions for your business.
