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We are itching for Bell (or TELUS) to bring the highly anticipated Palm Pre to Canada. Until then we have seen a copious amounts of videos on the web.

Last night, Engadget Editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky seemed to enjoy his time on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show. He brought out the Palm Pre for a quick demonstration and the wireless charger even showed up for a few minutes. Check out the video for over 8-minutes of goodness:

Bell has cut another 88 employees, this time it’s clerical workers who are located in Western Canada (British Columbia and Alberta). One of the reasons for the layoff is due to the jobs being outsourced to the Caribbean.

Wendy Sol, Administrative VP, Western Region said “Bell makes lots of noise about its Olympic commitments but it has been quiet about the devastating layoffs to its western Canada operation and its business commitment to the West. Bell says it wants to compete nationally, not just in Ontario and Quebec, and then it hacks away at its dedicated workforce in western Canada and sends jobs out of the country.”

This Dilbert cartoon may just be our reality these days.

Everyone seems to be getting more connected with their mobile phones. There are recent studies that show us sleeping with our mobile, addicted to check our e-mail every 5 minutes and some even prefer to hold their mobile phone over their girlfriend or boyfriend.

Read the comic and let us know if you are in the same boat as Dilbert:

Via: CrackBerry

**Update – this has now been pulled offline by eBay, but the seller has posted a video of the beta OS in action. See it here.**

Not that there is enough people around the world who are in love with the iPhone, today I am sure eager investors will put their bid on eBay for an early iPhone prototype.

Seller “$$billions_of_money$$” is puttind the working prototype up for grabs. This comes complete with a rough beta version of iPhone OS and just for good measure a second non-functional prototype is includes.

The bidding closes Mar-11-09 20:00:00 PDT and the description says “Here is a quite rare and collectable example of iPhone prototypes, one even running a beta OS. Only one of the phones works however. Neither unit says “iPhone” on them anywhere, or list the storage capacity which is interesting. I did some research on the serial numbers, it appears they were both manufactured about 6 months before the release of the iPhone.

Phone #1:
-Powers on OK – GSM service works
-Plastic matte screen (see pics)
-Serial number YM649xxxxxx which corresponds to a factory in China, manufactured week 49 of the year 2006.
-Runs iPhone OS 03.06.01_G (iPhone Launch OS 1.0 was version 03.11.02_G)
-Good cosmetic condition

Phone #2:
-Doesn’t turn on (tried leaving on charger for awhile, along with various reset procedures)
-Glass screen
-Serial number YM650xxxxxx which corresponds to a factory in China, manufactured week 50 of the year 2006. (The iPhone was announced on Jan 6 2007 and release June 29 2007.)
-I replaced the battery and still doesn’t work. Currently apart right now, can leave as-is for buyer or reassemble.
-Has various scratches, it is in fair cosmetic condition at best

The phone that works is pretty neat to use. It does make calls(with my ATT sim), and I can surf the net. However when I did get to web pages they were the mobile versions, not the regular versions. I can’t figure out how to set a ringtone, it is just silent right now. I can receive SMS but not compose my own, other than 5 included test messages. It doesn’t sync to itunes. Camera seems to work. It has tons of testing options.

Also, the working phone has several interesting subtitles that alternate on the screens including:

[Skank is the new black]
[Nine parts perspiration]
[Say hello to the Newton MessagePad 3000]
[Skankphone]

The phones also comes with a really nice soft case for each. I can guarantee that the working phone will work when you get it, but nothing else beyond that. This auction includes the 2 phones, and the 2 cases, and that is it. Shipping via USPS Priority Insured. Paypal within 3 days. Please ask any questions before bidding.

Check it out and get you bid in over at eBay here

Via: Engadget Mobile

With concerns about the current recession, Quebecor Inc. (which owns Videotron) spent $554.5 million during the Canadian Wireless Spectrum Auction says they’re on track to launch early 2010. CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said “We intend to stay there, stay on course. We intend to keep our schedule.”

A couple weeks ago we let you know about the upcoming website by Virgin Mobile Canada called “Screw You Recession”.

This officially launched today and in true Virgin fashion the description is perfect: “The recession sucks. We know it, you know it. So what are we going to do about it? Well, we’ve decided not to take this whole thing lying down. That’s right. We’re not gonna take it… no, we’re not gonna take it. We’re not gonna take it anymore.

We say “screw you recession!”

We tried screaming that for a while, and nothing really happened. Well, nothing that helped us save any cash. So we decided to put together this blog. This is recession central. A place to find the best recession links combed from the web, swap and learn tips on how to save a buck, vent a little if you’re feeling angry, and team up with other like-minded recessionistas and trade info on how to be cheap. Cool and kick ass – but cheap. In 2009 cheap is the new chic. Just like Zac Efron says, “we’re all in this together.” Well, he sung it really, but you know what we mean. Basically, we’re gonna make the recession our bitch“.

The actual site is divided into a few catagories that include: Money, Living, Fashion, Going Out, Eat, Arts, Green and Tech. Basically, the “ScrewYouRecession” site is a forum for people to express themselves and share tips on how to save money.

Check it out here

There is a new report out regarding the CRTC’s National Do Not Call List that I personally find shocking. The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association says 80% of people who registered are now receiving fewer unwanted calls.

The DNCL officially launched September 30th, 2008, and over 2.7 million Canadians registered within the first couple weeks. The DNCL is now over 6 million. A few weeks after the launch, President Bruce Cran of the Consumers’ Association of Canada says boldly stated that the DNCL is “a travesty. Here we have all these people thinking they were getting rid of incoming phone calls. Anyone who is registered should suspect their phone number is being broadcast to the four winds. The problem is that the CRTC sells the registry list online and specifically in Toronto, you can get 600,000 names for $50″.

However, in this new survey of over 2,000 Canadians, Brendan Wycks of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association said, “What our survey found was the do-not-call list is benefiting the great majority of those who registered a number on the list. Fully eight in 10 say that since they registered a number they are receiving noticeable fewer calls”

The survey says:
- 50% say they are receiving noticeably fewer or far fewer telemarketing calls
- 20% are receiving slightly fewer calls
- 10% are receiving no telemarketing calls at all

Where I come into differ on this survey is that I on average get 2 calls per day from some “Car Warranty expiring” or that I have “Won a free Vacation Getaway”. Before I registered last September, I can confidently say that I never received calls like this, and in this volume. Occasionally I did receive the credit card offers, but nothing to this extent.

Wycks goes on to say that “there’s a small but not insignificant minority, 13 per cent to be precise, that say they are receiving more calls since they registered with the do-not-call list,”

Unfortunately, I guess I’m part of the “small but not insignificant minority, 13 per cent”.
Have your say in our Forum here

Source: CTV

A couple weeks ago Sony Ericsson Canada updated their website with the XPERIA, C905, T303 & W705 as “Coming Soon”… only for all those to be taken down a few days later. Well, time passed and they have put them all back online with the familiar “Coming Soon” slogan.

Expect more info over the next few days.

Montreal-based non profit group, Union des consommateurs, is submitting a request to the CRTC to look into getting stricter rules for companies who send out “premium” text messages. You know the companies who ask you to sign up and offer you jokes, contests, quizzes, surveys, horoscopes, sports scores etc…

Seems like some individuals after signing up are being billed between $16 to $35 a month. Although some customers don’t remember actually signing up for the double opt-in service, they try and make contact with the carriers/marketers to remove them only to get frustrated when no contact information made available.

On behalf of Quebec residents, the group has filed complaints against Fido, Rogers, Telus, Koodoo, Bell and Vidéotron to the CRTC. They’re requesting the carriers to remove charges for premium text messages from their customers’ bills while a complaint is investigated.

More on this Monday

Remember the video we showed you a couple weeks ago with the an Apple wireless keyboard and a iPhone working in harmony with together over a Bluetooth connection. The original video was very blurry, so they have come back and shot another clear version.

They say “Both the keys and the display are in camera focus at the same time, iPhone is in Airplane Mode (so WLAN is intentionally off here) and it uses a simplified mechanism for key event injection (so there is no “VNC running on localhost” icon any longer)”. Check it out here