Latest News

As we reported earlier Bell is getting ready to launch the Sany PRO 200 & Sanyo PRO 700 devices.

The dummy phones have arrived for the targeted launch date of January 12th. We got some early pics of these and let me tell you these are ready for a beating. They certainly look durable and that is exactly what they’re meant for.

The Sanyo Pro 200s ia Bell exclusive that weighs in at 96 grams, has 10-4 capability, Bluetooth, 3G, speakerphone, GPS, 1.3 inch external display (128×96), 2 inch internal display (240×320), one-touch access keys to the web and text messages. This will be available in silver with a black backing.

The Sanyo PRO 700 provides more  durability as it meets military specifications 810F and can withstand dust, shock, vibrations. This is 108 grams, 10-4 capabilities, 3G, speakerphone, one-touch access keys to the web and text messages, GPS, Bluetooth, 1.3 inch external display (128×96), 2 inch internal display (240×320). This will be available in black and a yellow bumblebee colour.

Pricing is looking like the following:

Sanyo PRO 200: 3-year contract for $149.95, 2-year contract for $199.95 and outright for $349.95
Sanyo PRO 700: 3-year contract for $199.95, 2-year contract for $249.95 and outright for $399.95

More info soon from Bell… or you can check out SanyoWireless.ca

Frank Lee from LG Canada seems to be enjoying himself at CES… he returns with a quick glimpse into the Canadian future by taking us on a mobile Digital TV trip.

In Canada the goal is that we’ll be getting full digital broadcast of our TV shows by 2011. LG is thrilled to be leading the way by bringing the experience that you’ll have on your TV to your mobile devices (phones, portable DVD player, laptops, your car etc…)

At CES they are demonstrating a live broadcast of how it will look on your cell. Check out the video here:

CES is rocking and this is another great product that caught our attention. This time it’s Samsung by being the first to integrate Texas Instruments DLP’s Pico projector technology into mobile device.

With the build-in pico projector you can show videos, presentations, pictures on any surface. It features five viewing options – File Viewer (video files), Album (digital photos), Story Telling (animations), TV, and Flashlight.

The new phone, not going to be available in Canada for a while, is shipping in Korea late January has a OLED display, a 5 megapixel camera and a touchscreen with movable widgets.

Check out this video here:

In an article by the BBC about all the fake iPhone Nanos appearing in Thailand and now in European shops,  “Ian Shircore, head of marketing at fraud and counterfeiting specialists Envisional, said “Our view is that it’s unlikely an iPhone Nano is in the works at Apple. You would have to radically reinvent both existing battery and radio technology. What’s more, the LCD – currently the killer feature of iPhones – would also be shrunk. If I was Apple, with the fastest selling handset in history, and I currently couldn’t make enough units to sell, why would I want to make a smaller one?”

The SD Association has announced the SDXC (Secure Digital eXtended Capacity) with memory capacities up to 2TB. What does this mean exactly? Well, according to the press release: “A 2TB SDXC memory card can store 100 HD movies, 60 hours of HD recording or 17,000 fine-grade photos.”

We were sent this wicked video from LG Canada with a 4:18 insight into the recently announced LG-GD910 3G Watch Phone!

The LG-GD910 3G Watch Phone is simply amazing. Something you would see in a James Bond flick… and it’s ready for full blown production by the end of 2009!

The LG-GD910 3G Watch Phone has 3 navigation buttons on the side: End call, Main menu and receive call. The main menu has your contacts, calendar, music, messaging and settings. There are options to check your battery life, alarm clock, Bluetooth connectivity (this will come with a Bluetooth headset when launched). Some cool features are when you hold down the middle button you activate the voice recognition for your music or to directly dial a number in your contact list.

On the upper right hand side is a camera for video calling! It’s a picture in picture so you will see the person who you’re speaking with, and yourself. The standby battery life is about 247 hours and this watch has it all… and actually looks good too!

More coming soon from LG Canada

For those lucky enough to have the BlackBerry Storm in Canada (some people are still on a waiting list since the soft launch in December) you can now completely change the hardware casing to whatever colour you want.

Colorware has introduced it latest customizable case for the BlackBerry Storm. There are about 15 different colour choices with 2 types of finishes: metallics and solids. Both are high-gloss and have a scratch resistant finish to them.

You can either go for a change from the current all black look to another solid colour, or as they put it “a little variation and sparkle” you can choose the metallic colors which has “tiny flakes” within the colour. Or if you really want to create a storm of colours you can combine both options.

For the bad news, this is currently only available in the US and shipping takes between 2-3 weeks. So, if you know of somebody that you can trust that has a U.S. addresses you’re good to go.

The cost for a basic solid colour change is $129 and goes up about $10 for the top and bottom, $15 for side and $30 for a frame. They’ give an option for a random selection of colours (chosen by them) and creatively called this the “BrainStorm”. Kinda fun to see how many options are available.

Visit Colorware here

Google has updated Google Maps for mobile with the ability to get directons to businesses easier.

With the previous version, if you typed directions and entered a business name, such as “Starbucks”, it would look for addresses with the word “Starbucks” in it, not give you Starbucks the business. Now it’s possible to get directions to restaurants, stores, and other points of interest by entering the business name in the start or end point and give you your desired directions.

High Tech Computer (HTC) has released their 2008 results:  NT$152.56 billion (CA$5.46 billion) with a staggering one-year growth of 28.65%. The 2009 forecast is to launch about 10 new devices and have revenue growth of around 20%.

Looks like there’s one final push in Nova Scotia’s “Come To Life” campaign – this is the ad initiative that created the popular “Pomegranate Phone”.

Nothing is really new to the actual concept phone, just a bunch of stats: website has had over 560,000 visits from more than 190 countries, top 5 countries : 1) United States, 2) Canada, 3) Germany, 4) Italy and 5) the United Kingdom.

Stacey Jones-Oxner, communications advisor for the Nova Scotia initiative said “The goal for the campaign is to grab people’s attention and show them something they wouldn’t necessarily expect of Nova Scotia. It was designed to get people talking about the province as a creative, innovative place – the perfect place to invest, work, live and do business. Since there is so much buzz about the newest smart phones, we thought this was a good device to use. This is especially true when you consider that the people who are interested in the latest technology are exactly the people we’re trying to reach.”

Good on you Nova Scotia… – but was the $300,000 ad budget worth the 560,000 website visitors? No word on how many tourists came to Nova Scotia from the Pomegranate idea… Isn’t this the real question that should be asked?

If you’re unaware of what the Pomegranate Phone could do: It has a phone, e-mail, MP3 player, GPS navigation, full internet browser, built-in camera and video, projector, global voice translator, mobile coffee brewer, personal shaver and harmonica.