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This is the first of many new phones that Rogers will be launching over the next several weeks. The Motorola Extreme VA76r or code name called the “Motorola Extreme” is exclusive with Rogers Wireless and is available for $199.99 with a three-year commitment.

For us tough Canadians this is “certified to military standard 810 F for dust, drops, vibration, temperature extremes, and humidity”… is perfect for any construction site or “harsh and remote regions of the country.” The Motorola Extreme has a 2.2″ display, 2 megapixel camera with 8x zoom, holds up to 4GB optional removable memory, Internet browser and high speed 3G downloading capabilities.

Here are some features of this phone:
- Can withstand temperatures from 10 degrees C to 55 degrees C
- Can be “accidentally” dropped from a distance of 48 inches
- Can withstand extreme precipitation rates (280 l/m2/hr, 9 m/s velocity for 15 minutes)
- Designed to withstand most humid and dusty conditions

Jim Madigan, director of GSM sales, Motorola Canada said “The Motorola Extreme on Rogers HSPA network is the perfect handset for Canadians working in extreme conditions. The rugged design of the Motorola Extreme and the speed and reliability of Rogers’ network make staying connected in virtually all situations a reality.”

We were watching the season premier of Heroes and found ourselves staring at RIM TV commercial promoting the BlackBerry Bold. Even though the quality is not the best you can get a flavour of how RIM is sticking to the branding of the Bold: “Connect to everything you love in life, in a Bold new way. Introducing the BlackBerry Bold. As beautiful as it is powerful”… and ends with the tagline “Life on BlackBerry Bold”.

Sounds like they even made room for the exclusive music by Stewart Copeland. Check it out here:

Fonolo has been getting a great deal of attention recently, mainly because it helps you get through the clutter to avoid those annoying and much waste of time touch-tone menus – such as “Press 1 for English”, “Press *8 for Customer Service. What Fonolo does is help you “transcribes the phone menus of large companies, so you can navigate them visually”. All you need to do is pick the company you are calling and visually scan through their phone menu and call… then Fonolo goes to work with what they label as “Deep Dialing”.

Well, this “Deep Dialing” just made some massive progress for Fonolo, which is still in private beta, as they have just walked away with the the “Judges’ Prize” at Mobilize 2008, GigaOM’s conference in San Francisco.

The Judges’ Prize award is based upon the most innovative new companies in which Fonolo received a perfect score. Not to shabby!! Congrats Fonolo!

Judge Nagraj Kashyap, Sr. Director, Qualcomm Ventures, who exclaimed “I love the app, this is the first thing I’m going to do when I get home.”

Fonolo founder and CEO Shai Berger said “The appeal of Fonolo is truly universal. We’re thrilled that our concept resonated with so many people at Mobilize. Tonight’s recognition underscores the fact that people are frustrated with phone menus.”

Visit Fonolo

Globalive is looking to hopefully enter the Canadian wireless market during the second half of 2009, however, even with the estimated $700 million worth of support from Orascom they still might find a challenge coming up with the rest of the necessary funding. “Given the broader financing challenges, it is possible that new entrant wireless competition could come later than currently expected,” National Bank Financial analyst Greg MacDonald wrote in a note to clients. More here

The upcoming rate plans for Rogers BES clients made itself online: $40 for 7MB, $45 for 1GB and $75 for 3GB. In addition, there’s a flex plan available too. More here

Proud Canadian company Viigo has been recognized by Red Herring Magazine as one of Canada’s Top 50 Private Technology Companies. Viigo brings you live announcements and news to your BlackBerry or Windows Mobile smartphone. Mark Ruddock, Viigo CEO Mark Ruddock said “Viigo is poised to capitalize on what is projected to be one of the largest technology market opportunities ever to present itself. Our technology is fast becoming the platform of choice for smartphone users seeking to access both the content and the services they need, anytime and anywhere.” Congrats Viigo! More here

The Globe & Mail published an article with classic quotes from RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie: “Everybody wants to dance with us.” and “Just watch what you’re going to see in the autumn of 2008. I think we’ve given people a little peek-a-boo on all that. We feel like there was a lot of hype over the summer relating to different things and we just kind of kept our powder dry… we’re not done yet.”

The article goes on to speak about a new product called “Storm” that they will be releasing that’s a touchscreen with a slide-out QWERTY keypad. However, remember we posted these articles 1 & 2 where RIM did patent such a device. Could the article be true?

Best Buy Mobile Canada officially launched its stores this week and we love it when a new retailer expands their mobile offerings. Their flyer made its way to us and were pleased to see they have started promoting the upcoming releases of the HTC Touch Pro and HTC Touch Dual from Telus.

The tagline on the ad says “3 new ways to keep in touch”. No prices are listed yet, however, you can expect the Dual (slider version of the original Touch with keypad) to be similar to the price plan Bell is currently offering: 3-year plan for $99.95, 2-year plan is $249.95, 1-year plan $349.95 and no contract for $399.95.

No price listed for the HTC Touch Pro, basically a Diamond but with a QWERTY keyboard, but you can expect them both to be avaiable before October 30th, 2008… (these are the dates the flyer is good for).

From all the leaked advertsising we already knew the anticipated flip phone from BlackBerry called the Pearl 8220 is coming soon. Also, earlier this week Rogers finally posted a page that said the 8220 was “coming soon!“. However, we did check back to the “coming soon” page and it now redirects you to another website called youaskedforit.ca.

When the Bold launched, Rogers had a contest on youaskedforit.ca that had a chance to win 1 of 10 BlackBerry Bold smartphones. It looks for the time being all they want is your personal info and if you intend to use the phone for personal or business use… in return they’ll send you an e-mail to when it has officially launched.

If you have the iPhone 3G it will be important to you to exchange the “ultracompact USB power adapter” as Apple has learned that the “metal prongs can break off and remain in a power outlet, creating a risk of electric shock. We have received reports of detached blades involving a very small percentage of the adapters sold, but no injuries have been reported.”

Apple states this is a voluntary recall and affects every iPhone 3G sold in Japan, United States, Canada, Mexico and several Latin American countries. Apple suggests that you stop using the adapter immediately and charge your iPhone by USB through your computer. Starting October 10th you can either order a new power adaptor free of charge online or by going to your closest Apple retail location. More here