Author Archives: Stephen

Blackberry Bold Rogers Release Date

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Rogers and RIM will be releasing the much awaited Blackberry Bold in Canada, tomorrow, August 21st. The Bold or 9000 is RIM’s first HSDPA Device and some people are claiming it will compete with the new 3G iPhone.

In my recent checking out of the Roger’s web site it looks like they have changed their Blackberry Plans to be a little more reasonable than previously offered. The 30.00 per Month for 6GB Promotional package is available on the Bold until the end of August as well as a 15.00 unlimited email (only) package. There is one other decent package a 30.00 – 300 MB per month data plan.

However if you are on a Blackberry Enterprise Server, prepare to hand your wallet over to Rogers… The above data plans will not work with BES server. For BES users there are three (poor) data plans offering; 40.00 per month for 7 MB, 45.00 per month for 300MB and 100.00 per month for 1 GB.

I have been using my Curve with a BES running on my SBS server now for about a year and a half now and I really like the instant push to email that I get as well as the contact and calendar syncing. However I was planning on using the Bold as a tethered wireless modem with my laptops and even the 300 MB plan would make that next to impossible as I could blow through 300 MB in a day.

I will probably go with the Promotional Plan with 6GB of data and try some other things. I can use sync with the desktop manager for contacts and then use Google Calendar sync (which works great) to sync my calendars. If the I find I really need to be connected to the BES server then I can always change plans later and wait for Rogers to at least come close to the US for HSDPA Modem plans.

I have seen and held the Bold demo unit in a store and while a little larger than my Curve it does feel really nice in the hands and the keyboard looks and feels great. Maybe by this time tomorrow I will have my new Blackberry Bold. If so my own review will be coming along soon.

 

Rogers Lied – HSDPA Modems and Data Plans

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Back in July, shortly after the iPhone launch I was checking out Rogers’ web site. I looked at their HSDPA data plans and modems. While there I noticed that the promotional 30.00/mth for 6GB plan was shown as listed for the HSDPA cards and Modems. I called the Rogers number on the site and confirmed this with the rep in not one but two phone calls. I went ahead and ordered the modem. While I don’t do a lot of travelling around I thought it was a reasonable price for a service and comparable to what was available in the US for a Data Plan. I ordered the modem and was told I would have it the next day. Well the modem never showed up.

I tried calling the rep I was dealing with and found out he was on vacation so I tracked my order and learned that these USB modems were out of stock. Last week I called the rep again (August 6th) and was told that the modems were back ordered and that they were due any day. On the 7th of August I received a call that the modem was in and that it would be here on the 8th.

Sure enough on the morning of the 8th, my UPS driver showed up with the package. I was just heading out of town so I left the modem behind till I got back.

Today I was checking something on the billing on my wife’s Blackberry. Seems there was a fairly large overage plan on her phone and I wanted to find out about it. Turns out they had only applied the 15.00 1.5 MB plan to her phone and not the 15.00 unlimited email only plan to her phone. As a result there was a 22 or so dollar overage charge. I have since rectified this problem. While I was on the phone with the rep I was checking out their Blackberry plans and noticed that there was a change to their website. They had a couple of asterisks beside the 30.00 6GB plan saying that it was not available on the PC Connect cards.

I had the rep check the account for my new Modem and sure enough it had a 50.00/500MB data plan on it. Useless!!!!! I immediately called my rep and had him check it and yes the 30.00 plan was not there. I have now cancelled the order (I never used the modem at all) and will be sending it back. If I really needed this type of service I could always use the Rogers Portable Internet Service although it is not truly mobile.

Once again the Canadian third world data plans are in effect! My guess is that a lot of people had the same idea that I had and that Rogers realized their over site on not flagging the site saying it was not available on the High Speed cards.  The existing data plans for high speed cards in Canada are ridiculous and they are not at all worth the cost of owning one.

I am being told that the 30.00 plan should be available with the Blackberry Bold on it’s release. So if this is true then I could always tether my Blackberry, however knowing Rogers that plan will not work with a BES server and it will be useless for me. If that is the case I may have to breakdown and buy an iPhone to get the exchange support in the data plan. I guess I could learn to live with the terrible iPhone keyboard.

While on the subject I also got some clarification into the Rogers 15.00 unlimited email plan. The unlimited plan only includes email. If you do any web surfing or use other applications (Google Calendar Sync for example) they charge you .05 per KB. There is a plan that is 30.00 monthly that covers 300 MB of email and data, although my guess is that this would not work with BES either.

Unfortunately there is really no difference between any of the Canadian Wireless companies at this time and they will continue to pull money out of your pocket.

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Blackberry Bold Watch with Rogers

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I just spoke to my Rogers Business rep about the Blackberry Bold availability. I was basically told that the new Blackberry Bold can be released any day now through Rogers. I also asked about plans and it appears that the promotional 30.00 / 6GB plan will also be available for the Bold. The rep indicated that Rogers is just now waiting for delivery of the inventory from Research in Motion.

All reviews that I have read about the Bold indicate that it will be an awesome device!

So far release dates that I have heard is for today (August 6th), August 8th or August 11th.

The Bold is already available for sale in Chile.

When the Bold is released and if the plans are as stated, we will be upgrading as soon as we can.

 

Notebook Hard Drive Upgrade Week!

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This week has been a little busy! Two of my Notebooks, my Acer TM 6292 Windows XP Machine and my MacBook Pro, were both running out of hard drive space. Last week I was able to pick up a couple of 320 GB 7200 RPM Western Digital Notebook drives from one of my suppliers. I have spent the last day and a half upgrading the drives in these machines.

The Acer was a piece of cake as the hard drive is easy to replace. The MacBook Pro on the other hand was a little more difficult as the drive is in the chassis. While I feel comfortable taking apart laptops the MBP scared me a little as opening it voids your warranty unless it is done by an Apple Authorized Service Centre.

I took the MBP into a local Apple dealer and had them do the hard drive upgrade (30 minutes of labour) and I just picked up the machine this afternoon. I am currently in the process of restoring the OSX system but it has not been as easy as the Windows XP restore. The next step will be for me to try and restore the BootCamp Windows Vista partition.

I have been anxious to the MAC done because a few new applications this week I want to try on my MAC (Microsoft released the Live Mesh MAC client this week) as well as the release of the new version of Adobe PhotoShop Lightroom.

I will include step by step instructions of what I used and how I did the upgrades soon under my “how to” category so if you ever want to upgrade a hard drive in a PC or Notebook (as well as the MAC) I will provide step by step instructions of what you need and how to complete the task.

 

Flip Video Ultra, Canadian Retail Sighting!

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A couple of weeks ago, I started looking at a Flip Ultra Video camera again and where I could get one in Canada. Unfortunately there were no Canadian resellers. The Flip Ultra is a small (slightly bigger than an iPod Classic) solid state video camera. These cameras are tiny and designed to go into your pocket to be where ever you want to take them. They shoot 640 x 480 (VGA) video onto internal memory. You can view what you are shooting via a 1″ LCD screen on the back of the camera. The camera also features a USB connector that flips up to connect to a PC or Mac to download or edit the videos. While the videos aren’t designed (and frankly don’t even look good) on a large TV screen they are an ideal size for uploading to YouTube or other video sharing sites. For more info on the Flip you can go here, http://www.theflip.com.

flip There are several of these cameras that are available now, including the RCA Small Wonder EZ201 and Kodak has just released a new model in the US. There are also several other types of these cameras from off brand Chinese companies. I myself have an RCA Small Wonder that I got for myself last year from Ebay and we also got one for my 7 year old son when he wanted his own video camera. He loves it!

The problem is none of these cameras are available on Canada. In the past you had to purchase from Ebay or while travelling in the states. You could get a Flip via www.tigerdirect.ca however.

Well this past Monday while wandering through the electronics department of our local Wal-Mart (I do it every visit), I spotted a Flip Ultra in a box. Looks like Wal-Mart Canada has started selling the 2GB Flip Ultra for 158.64. This camera will record 60 minutes of video to it’s 2 GB of memory.

From what we have been reading is that although the technology between the Flip and the RCA Small Wonder EZ201 is virtually identical, the video quality especially in low light on the Flip. The Flip also works on a Mac system. However the Small Wonder has an SD slot so that you can add additional SD cards it also comes with a USB extender in case you need more room to plug in to your computer.In addition the LCD screen of the Small Wonder also flips out so that you can self record with it. However once again the RCA Small Wonder is not available in Canada at this time.

Unfortunately neither is the Flip Mino, which is a smaller version of the camera with rechargeable batteries (the Ultra runs on 2 AAs), at least at the time of this writing.

Flip also has an underwater housing available for the Flip Ultra, that allows you to take the Ultra down to depths of 30′ (although deeper depths have been reported). A word of caution however, the fit on the case is not perfect and there have been issues with accessing the power button. Also care has to be used with any underwater housing as a single grain of sand or a hair between the o-ring and the chassis could cause the enclosure to leak.

While these mini video cameras do not replace a full fledged DV camcorder, they are ideal for younger kids wanting a video camera or just to carry around with you every where you go so that you can record video without the bulk of a camcorder!

Adobe Releases Lightroom 2.0!

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A little behind on the news here. Monday July 28th Adobe released the latest version of their Lightroom product version 2.0. The beta has been downloadable for several months now and it offers a number of new features including
Multiple Monitor Support
64 Bit Compatibility
Improved Speed
Improved integration with Photoshop
Localized corrections.

Upgrade price for Lightroom 1 users is 99.00 USD, and we were a little disappointed to see the price of a new version being left at 299.00 USD. Apple’s Aperture 2.0 price was lowered to 199.00 USD a few months ago and I was hoping that Adobe would have followed with Lightroom pricing, albeit that Aperture requires a Mac but Lightroom runs on PCs and Macs.

If you have read our review of Lightroom 1, you’ll know that it is an application that we would be lost without and we highly recommend it for anyone that takes lots of digital photos. I had downloaded the Beta of version 2.0 but didn’t do a lot with it. I have also downloaded the 30 day trial version of version 2.0 and played with it a little before taking the Macbook Pro in for a Hard Drive upgrade. In short it was noticeably faster than version 1.0. I am expecting to get my Macbook Pro back today or tomorrow (with a new 320GB 7200 RPM Drive) and will be purchasing the full version as soon as the machine is ready.

Retail box copies should be available within the next two to three weeks, but you can purchase and download right now directly from http://www.adobe.com.

 

Interesting Microsoft Study

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CNet news today has published a story about a unique study that Microsoft recently did. They took a number of XP users that had negative impressions of Windows Vista, put them on video and showed them and had them play with a new Microsoft Operating system code named Mojave. More than 90% gave positive feedback. Then they told the users it was Windows Vista!

The full article is available here http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-9998336-56.html?tag=blog.1

Just goes to show that Vista has been getting a lot of unfair press, and that many of the skeptics have not used it. Most people’s opinions have been formed by listening to other people’s opinion.

We have been deploying Vista since day 1 and have not had any problems with the OS.

 

Lower Priced Canadian Data Plans, Well Sort of!

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One of the things that I was hoping when the iPhone was released in Canada was that Apple would make Rogers offer affordable data plans then that would carry over to the other carriers. Well anyone who read my post on the original iPhone plans that Rogers was offering knows that didn’t happen. In fact Apple was also disappointed and withdrew the sales of iPhones from their own stores in Canada.

Well Rogers did back down a little after the outcry and announced a few days before the iPhone release that they were offering a 30.00 per month 6 GB data plan. This is much better and is more in line with what AT&T and other carriers in the States offered.

I happened to be checking out the Rogers web site earlier this week and was looking at the High Speed PC cards for laptops. I have one of these cards (an EVDO AirCard from Telus) that I share for work when I am on call. It is really nice allowing me to connect my laptop from virtually anywhere. I have been looking at these for a whole but have never purchased one because of the monthly price. Basically in Canada with all of the carriers the plans are about 100.00 per month for 2 GB of traffic. The other alternative I had been looking at was the Rogers Portable Internet Service which is much more affordable but not as mobile as it can’t switch towers and you have to have an AC Outlet (or an inverter in your car) to use the modem.

Like I sad I was browsing the Rogers site and the High Speed PC Cards when I clicked on the link for the plans. Right at the top of the list (and as a limited time offer till August 31) was a 30.00 per month 6GB plan! I called the corporate sales number and asked one of the reps. He wasn’t aware of it but said if it was on the site it was true! I was out a little later in the day and I decided to stop in a Rogers store to just see the iPhone and I asked the sales person there. Again she indicated that if it was on the website it was true.

After a few days of hemming and hawwing, I called the corporate sales rep yesterday and once again confirmed that the modem was available with the plan. Because I am already a Rogers customer it was easy and I was done in less than ten minutes. I ordered the USB modem (which I got for 49.99) and the 30.00 per month 6 GB Data Plan. My modem should arrive sometime tomorrow and I will advise on how things go.

 

Did Pressure Work? Rogers Caved on iPhone, at Least Temporarily.

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Rogers put out a press release this morning indicating a promotional data plan for the iPhone 3G. Anyone who activates a new iPhone 3G before August 31st can get a 6GB Data Plan on top of any voice plan for 30.00 per month. While not unlimited data as what is being offered in the US by AT&T at least it is better than the plans that Rogers had originally offered.

Rogers came under a lot of fire for the pricing on the data plans that they first announced on June 28th and many people were calling for others to boycott and not buy the new iPhone.

While this option is better than anything previously offered it is only a limited time promotional plan.

Canadians are still third world when it comes to cell phone plans and pricing. Our voice and data plans are ridiculously expensive and limited compared to the rest of the world (there are African countries with better pricing). More evidence of this was brought forward yesterday when both Telus Mobility and Bell Mobility announced they would start charging .15 per incoming text messages for users with no text plans on their plans.  Last night a family friend indicated she received a spam text to her phone on the Telus Mobility network. Very shortly that will cost her .15 cents.

 

Drobo 2.0 Released!

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Data Robotics this morning announced the availability of the second generation Drobo. The new Drobo is faster itself and adds FireWire 800/400 connectivity as well as USB 2.0! When connected via FireWire the unit is said to be twice as fast as the older version. This new version will make it better for Digital Video applications and faster storage. The new Drobo Dashboard software that gives some performance boost to owners of the older Drobos will soon be available for download.

It appears the the Drobo Share add on (gives the Drobo network connectivity) has not yet been upgraded to FireWire but I will assume that will be coming in the future.

We picked up a Drobo evaluation unit sometime this spring and have been impressed with it. In a nutshell the Drobo is an external enclosure that allows you to add up to 4 Sata or Sata II hard drives of any capacity to the unit. It then takes all of the space and allocates backup areas. This allows for your data to be spanned across all of the drives and also provides some redundant data protection. If a drive fails, simply pop it out replace it with one of equal or greater capacity and your data will be saved. Running out of space on the Drobo? Pop out the smallest drive and replace it with a bigger one and away you go. The current model supports up to 16 TB of drives.

While supplies last Data Robotics is selling the older Drobo’s for 349.00 and the new Drobo 2 at the regular price of 499.00.

For anyone that needs a secure data storage and backup, we highly recommend the Drobo and now with the release of Drobo 2.0 we are moving the Drobo higher up our list of recommended Data Storage products.

We will be ordering a new Drobo 2 unit shortly and will be testing it and have it available for demonstrations and evaluations.