Latest News

Koodo Mobile is set to release the very text friendly LG KEYBO. This device was first announced way back in August with Telus and also heavily used in the LG Canadian Texting Championships.

The KEYBO has a  QWERTY keyboard, 2 mega pixel camera, music player and dedicated gaming keys, 1 GB memory card, stereo speakers, and expandable memory up to 8GB, weighs 120 grams, with dimensions of 102mm x 54mm x 16.5mm. This will only be available in Black.

When this officially launches, Best Buy Mobile will be selling this on the tab for $74.99 and they also sweeten the pot by throwing in a $100 LG gift card. Now there’s a deal that will help you loose those landlline lumps!

We did a video review when it first came out with Telus which can be seen here.

We love Best Buy and Future Shop Fridays! As the upcoming holiday season approaches we will start seeing a slew of new phones come out. Today we noticed the upcoming Samsung M540 TAAG(?) from Telus.

This looks to be the Samsung Rant that was released back in September by Sprint in the US. The M540 will is a side that has a full QWERTY keyboard, 2 megapixel camera , GPS, 2.1″ screen, weighs in at 130 grams and will be available at Best Buy Mobile for the following prices:

3-year plan: $29.99
2-year plan: $79.99
1-year plan: $179.99
Month-to-Month or Outright: $249.99

More to come soon!

If you’re like many Canadians that have started to depend on your mobile internet for daily activities, you’ll absolutely love the news that Skyfire is officially available to us Canadians.

Skyfire brings the web to your mobile phone as if you’re using your work or home computer. No more text link mobile web sites, error messages or unloadable videos. Currently available on Windows Mobile and Nokia related devices (BlackBerry users will have to wait a bit) – you can visit, view and use Facebook the way it’s meant to be, catch up on the latest news that CBC is giving.

All you have to do to get started is register your name and e-mail address, download the free app and get going. For now, view this video of Skyfire in action to fully understand its power (this video has US content but the experience is the same):

CMO Adam Sexton said “Skyfire users love being able to browse media rich sites like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and ESPN. “Our users prove that with Skyfire, mobile web browsing is very similar to PC Web browsing. We are pleased to bring Skyfire to Canada so that users there can use their mobile phones to visit sites that take full advantage of everything Web 2.0 has to offer.” More at Skyfire

A comment by Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha points towards the release of Windows Mobile 6.5 “Windows Mobile 6 has not delivered the experience that I think Apple has been able to deliver, but as you look at the plan that Windows Mobile 7 and even 6.5, I think there are significant new added features which will help the platform.”

The HTC Touch Diamond is certainly nothing new in Canada… however, what’s new is the Diamond coming to Bell!

We got a package by courier today and inside was the long awaited HTC Touch Diamond in all its glory. A nice clean looking box with the new Bell branding. We took some time to unbox this musical masterpiece simply to show its contents and what you can expect to get when you open yours.

We hear this will be available soon (maybe October 31st, or early November) with the following price plans:
3-year: $199.95
2-year: $349.95
1-year: $449.95
No Contract: $499.95
*Overall, coming in $0.05 cheaper than Telus.

Enjoy the video and we will have more info shortly:

The battle of the Voyager has started as Telus has officially released the LG Voyager for $179.99 on a 3-year term. This is also available for $329.99 on a 2-year contract, $379.99 for 1-year and no contract for $429.99.

We will have a video review soon. From the early looks of the devise it seems to be a texting dream, similar to the KEYBO in many ways, but the Voyager has an external touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard, 3G, 2.0 Megapixel camera, weighs 133 grams and is 118×54×18, MicroSD up to 8 GB.

Bell is also launching this soon, with their price plan expected to come in around: 1-year: $349.95, 2-year: $249.95, 3-year: $199.95 and Outright for $399.95.

More here at Telus

Motorola reported a staggering Q3 loss $397 million and decided to delay the planned spin-off of its cell phone division. In total Motorola sold 25.4 million cell phones (down from 28.1 million in Q2). The company now lags behind Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson as largest cell phone manufacturer worldwide. Full story here

MTS is set to report Q3 2008 results on Thursday, November 6, 2008 and have also been awarded the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Community at the Manitoba Business Awards.

RBC, Visa and Rogers Wireless will be launching a customer phase of their mobile phone payment pilot mid-2009 – Soon you will be able to pay for small small ticket items simply by waving you cell phone over Visa payWave-enabled checkout reader”. The pilot will be using Motorola phones and is first targeted in select retail stores and quick-service restaurants in Toronto.

David Robinson, Vice-President, New Business Planning, Rogers Wireless. “This pilot is the first step to making our customers’ mobile phones as indispensable as their wallets and we are excited to be working with Visa and RBC on this new wireless payment service.”

Bell started testing mobile payments with MasterCard back in August.

Looks like everyone is playing nicely together – first we saw Future Shop with leaked ads and website info, then The Source… and now Best Buy Mobile has put the upcoming Rogers BlackBerry Pearl 8220 Flip on its site. Although, each retail outlet shows different pricing!

There’s not much info on the Best Buy site, except it’ll be available in Black and Pink and will “ship when available”. The price only stated is $349.99. See it here.

Rogers stores are being filled now with the phones and should be available for purchase next week.

**Update – here is the latest flyer that has gon out showing the 8220 will be $49.99 on a 3-year plan (and you will get a $50 gift card):