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There are so many amazing features that keep popping up that ensures the mobile phone is strong and absolutely going nowhere. For example, phones now have the ability to take a picture of a billboard that has a certain offer and a coupon will be sent to you via text message. You can purchase all your concert tickets via your phone. Also, in Canada, MasterCard has stepped up and is doing a trial now of paying for such items as gas, food via your mobile phone.

We came across the website called “SMS Parking”. It’s only available in Amsterdam but can certainly work for us Canadians. Rather than swipe your credit card or put loose change in the parking meter, all you have to do to pay for your ticket is send a text message to a dedicated number. Seems pretty easy. Paying for parking in Canada by cell phone started back in 2004 through Impark called “Impark Wireless” and costs the parking fee plus an extra $0.35 charge every time you park.

Even Globalive CEO Anthony Lacavera has a vision for using the mobile phone for its usual features:”Has anyone thought about the potential to use mobile phones for a lot more than just calls, browsing, and texting? A lot of mobile operators around the world have point of sale integration in place with retailers to permit all different kinds of mobile payments – I think this could work well in Canada to pay for any road/bridge tolls, parking meters, and anything else we all need to carry change around for!”

What do you dream the mobile phone will eventually do in Canada?

Check out SMS Parking

For all you crossword junkies!! Ottawa-based Magmic Games announced that The New York Times Crosswords will be available to AT&T BlackBerry subscribers in the US on Oct. 2nd. Now the bad news, us Canadians will have to wait until January 1st to get our fix .

The AT&T price plan so you can effectively budget: There are 2 pacakges: 1: A one-time purchase version for $7.99, includes 30 classic puzzles. 2. A monthly subscription for $2.99 that gives access to the same daily puzzles published in the print publication, along with archive of over 4,000 puzzles. More here

As we patiently wait for Sony Ericsson to give us Canadians a
release date for the XPERIA X1… a viral video has been released
called “Who is Johnny X?”. It’s a thriller that is only a teaser now, just like the actual phone, and will obviously over time
will show the capabilities of the gem. Check it out here

TiVo and BlackBerry struck a deal that makes it possible for TiVo subscribers who have a BlackBerry to look up TV show details on their phones and use them to set their DVRs to record them. If you remember Unify4Life, a start up company based in Markham, ON, is offering a similar feature that takes it a step further and turns your BlackBerry into a universal remote control.

Toronto-based CallWand, the people who brought you #TAXI in Canada has gone American. It’s a pay-per-use service that is available with Boost for $1.29 per call, Alltel and Verizon Wireless for $1.50 per call, and AT&T Mobility for $1.79 per call.  If you are in a rush an don’t know the number of the taxi company, you can press #TAXI on your mobile and it will connect you with the first available taxi in the area.

Telus has a plan called “The Student Plan” and a way they are promoting this is on MySpace… good choice as it’s the direct market. If you go to the Telus MySpace page you’ll also see a contest called “Secret Show”. If your school is one of the chosen 24 on the list you can vote and have a “cool band” show up and play for you in October. Past bands have been Bedouin Soundclash, Silverstein and Stars.

Seems like every week there is some unreleased device that shows up on eBay. First it was the BlackBerry Bold, a couple weeks ago we say the Pearl 8220 “KickStart” (which sold for $1725 USD)… now the Javelin is on eBay with a starting bid of $899.99USD.

The seller “rogersunlocking” is based in North York, Ontario and if you want to get in on this you have until September 18th at 1:20:03 EST.

Enjoy…. here is the link to place your bid

If you have yet to see the leaked video review by a Ninja of the upcoming BlackBerry Thunder touchscreen. See it here

We waited so long for the Nokia XpressMusic to come to Canada … after a few months of steady sales, it has now shown up at Primus for $39.95 on a 3-year plan. In addition, you can score this for $89.95 on a 2-year contract, $159.95 in a 1-year. If you are feeling like going month-to-month this can be yours for $249.95.

Learn more here at Primus

The Nokia 5310 is a mid-range non-3G phone that only weighs about 70 grams and measures 4.09″ x 1.76″ x 0.39″ with a 2 inch display. The 5310 is a fully loaded music player with up to 20 hours of music playback. Comes with a FM radio and can store up to 4 Gbytes of memory for your music, a 4x digital zoom2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth connectivity, 3.5mm headphone jack, 1GB microSD card and can store up to 3,000 songs. FYI, this has 5 hours of talk-time and 12.5 days of standby-time. Our video review is here

Quebecor Media, which operates Videotron, is open to forming a wireless partnership and continue its dreams to be a player in the Canadian mobile market. Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO he is ready to start negotiating “We are certainly well positioned to consider any type of partnership,”. More here from ROB