Month: August 2008

As per CNet News.com:

Canadian cell phone carrier Rogers Communications is extending its iPhone data plan promotion another month, as it tries to figure out how best to price data plans for smartphone users, CBC reported Thursday.

[…]

A Rogers representative the company told the CBC the offer is being extending through September to allow buyers of the new BlackBerry Bold to take advantage of it. The Bold was introduced only week ago.

What’s interesting is the new data packages scheduled to be offered after this date: a $25/500MB and $30/1GB plan should show up sometime in October. I know at least one friend doesn’t want the $30 hit per month for his BlackBerry, so he sticks with the $15 email-only package. $5 can actually make the world of difference to some price-sensitive customers, especially the student audience being targeted in the coming months. Going down to an admittedly quite reasonable $25 plan might convince more people to pick up these devices. There will also be more plans available: $60/3GB and $80/8GB, along with a low-end $15/2MB offering to fool the really cheap customers into overages. 😉

Additionally, even the lowest tier Rogers voice package ($20) paired with a $25 data plan would push ARPU to the magical $45/month required by business decisions and most data device hardware upgrades.

Of course, our voice plans are still gimped compared to the States, but colour me slightly more impressed.

And here’s the wrapup.

• Spring 2008 term has officially ended. For the past few days I’ve been trying to relax; as opposed to creating content for the Web, there’s been a lot of Halo 3 and other video games going on.
• I start again at RIM on September 2nd. Things haven’t changed much from when I was there last, which should make for a smooth transition.
• Hardware upgraded to a BlackBerry Bold as I’m a consumer whore with company loyalty. The screen is really sharp and the new processor gives a really responsive UI. The iPhone 3G was admittedly an attractive option but had two major buzzkills: no physical keyboard, and gimped push email. I had to trade my weaselled retentions plan in for something a bit more conventional, but I’ve now got a monthly plan encompassing some text messaging capabilities.
• Warren also purchased me an Invisible Shield for the device. I highly recommend this product. Resale value will be much higher and any new iPods will definitely get one of these.
• It’s move-in time for our neighbours, which means the landlord feels the need to test out his new bowling ball by dropping it down next door’s flight of stairs repeatedly. (In all reality, he’s probably using a hammer on something, but it sounds suspiciously like my initial description.) I’m hoping that this term, there’ll be some attractive girls in the same complex – but that’s probably a long shot. 😉

Here’s what my workstation setup now looks like after just under four months in the new place.

To manage my systems, I’m using a utility called Synergy with an OS X extension called SynergyKM. The MacBook Pro acts as the server: the display on the left is hooked up to the DVI port on the laptop, and the display on the right is connected to my Vista box.

When I mouse to the right side of the left monitor, the keyboard and mouse focus changes to the PC. (Synergy is running as a client under Vista.)

Finally, here’s a shot of my main PC workstation in its current opened state:

Just before heading into my marketing exam this evening, I was checking Crackberry and HowardForums for the usual selection of news. What I found was actually an interesting exercise in branding, using the time-honoured technique of showing us an attractive girl in underwear.

Virgin Mobile Canada apparently has launched the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 on their service, which I believe is a first for a Canadian MVNO; generally only the non-virtual carriers in North America have established relationships with RIM for devices and services. In Canada, Virgin is CDMA and runs off the Bell infrastructure – so if you get decent Bell coverage in your area, service will be about the same quality.

The thing that all the fanboys on HoFo seem to be noticing is the attractive female used in the promotional video. I believe one poster later in the thread described the model as ‘hott’, which leads me to believe he drooled on his keyboard during the video and it now duplicates keystrokes.

The primary focus of the thread and the Crackberry article (the hawt girl, in case you haven’t followed) is followed closely by an interestingly decent offer. A three year contract gets you a $0 device and a 8GB microSD card; plans start at $25 for voice and $30 for unlimited email/Web/IM, with explicit support for Windows Live Messenger and Facebook integration. Virgin also doesn’t charge for system access fees or incoming text messages at present, so consider that a $6.95 discount per month.

(There are also several other data packages available, including the traditional $15 unlimited email/BlackBerry Messenger plan. Another interesting plan seems to be the $45 email, web, text messaging, IM, voicemail and call display addon for the people who can’t get enough SMS action.)

What’s even more interesting about this $30 plan? BES access appears to be is enabled. That’s right; the BlackBerry informational page notes that unlimited access to enterprise email is included:

Enterprise email
Our BlackBerry plans give you unlimited access to enterprise email if you:

• Use the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server in your organization
• Have a client access license

You get:

• Secure access to corporate email
• Corporate data access
• Wireless email and calendar synchronization
• Remote address lookup

I’ve written into the Virgin support team to confirm that BES is activated on their standard packages. I’ve also asked if the $15 plan includes BES support as well, and will update this post with my findings the answer is yes, as confirmed by Chris below.

If Since BES support is present, this would makes Virgin’s offering the only unlimited package in Canada with enterprise support. While this news isn’t quite the shakeup of a new wireless entrant, Virgin now would be my top pick for a CDMA provider over Telus or Bell.

Edit: Cleaned up some grammar.
Edit 2: Updated with confirmation of BES inclusion.

You may be aware of my unconventional music preferences. Online, I’ve often produced self-deprecating pie charts and bar graphs making a statement about the contents of my library. While some armchair psychologists would say this is because I secretly have a deathwish or can empathize with the lyrics and use them as a metaphor for my own life, I reject those theories because they’re obviously nonsense. Sometimes, just tuning out lyrics and listening to a mass-marketable chord pattern is enough of a musical experience.

This emo phenomenon is even more pronounced when you look at my Zune Card. Note how all the artists from a "top played" selection are groups of four guys who really need to have their barbers stop standing crooked.

In no particular order except alphabetic, and because I’m interested in checking out Windows Live Writer’s support for uploading posts, here are some artists you might find kicking around my library. I can’t condone that you actually listen to any of them unless you’re really hard-up for content.

(What I really want to do with this post or potential series: hope that somebody puts in some angry comments below about their favourite group not being emo, and chuckle.)

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30 Seconds to Mars

Emo Rating: Rock Band says they’re emo, so that’s good enough for me.

• Track suggestions from their self-titled album: "Capricorn (A Brand New Name)" and "End of the Beginning"
• Attack on "A Beautiful Lie" is one of the better tracks for Rock Band, because it’s not too hard to sing and it’s an excellent workout on the drums
• It also needs to be blasted at top volume for full angst value

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Aiden

Emo Rating: More screamo than anything, but any group with a song titled "The Sky Is Falling" and "Hurt Me" had better be ironic if not emo.

• Track suggestions include "She Will Love You" and "I Set My Friends on Fire", in addition to the Chicken Little-esque Sky Is Falling piece
• They’re listed as "post-hardcore" on Wikipedia, which generally is good comedy fodder
• For even more emo kid fun, look up the lead vocalist’s page and check out
  
  • The run on sentences!
    • "but during wiL’s years dabbling with drugs he was no longer active within a band and only began re-playing guitar during his rehabilitation as a form of therapy and it developed from there."
  • The oh-so-awesome "reliance on friendship"!
    • wiL has also shown his reliance on friendship. The song Silent Eyes from the Rain in Hell EP was written about Bayside drummer, John ‘Beatz’. whilst on tour with Aiden, Hawthorne Heights and Silverstein, the Bayside bus flipped on a patch of black ice. ‘Beatz’ died due to severe injuries.
  • The stupid way he spells his name, apparently!
    • "What sort of stupid way is that to spell a name? "wiL"? What the fuck? –79.65.26.141"

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Alexisonfire

Emo Rating: Pretty damn emo. "Sharks and Danger" starts with a recorded call to the St. Catharine’s Psychiatric Hospital.

• Recommended songs: "To A Friend", "Hey, It’s Your Funeral Mama" and "Control"
• Screamo, although apparently that characterization will be changed next album
• The band describes their music as "the sound of two Catholic high-school girls in mid-knife-fight"

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The All-American Rejects

Emo Rating: It doesn’t get much more emo than this. At least My Chemical Romance has a gothic feel going on, but these guys hate life on an equivalent Simple Plan level.

• I can’t in good faith recommend any song off either album. "Move Along" is okay in Rock Band after an odd number of beers greater than five
• Actually I don’t even know why I have the full album anyway, because it sucks and they’re all rated as "don’t like"
• Some lyrics from "Can’t Take It", sung in a whine –
  • You speak to me
    I know this will be temporary
    You ask to leave,
    but I can tell you that I’ve had enough

    I can’t take it
    This welcome is gone and
    I’ve waited long enough to make it
    and if you’re so strong
    you might as well just do it alone
    And I’ll watch you go

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The Almost

Emo Rating: Why won’t you stay? You’re so far away. (Never Say "I Told You So")

• "Southern Weather" is the money track, although "Everyone Here Smells Like a Rat" is a pretty decent title
• Drastic departure from the vocal styles of Underoath, making the album very tolerable as background music

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Hopefully these five artists are enough to get your inner emo kid on. I’m not sure how many of you will care, but I’ll go down the list in future if anyone is actually, honestly interested in this stuff.

When I drop close to two grand on a laptop, I expect perfection – or at least close to it. I noticed this case alignment issue with my new MacBook Pro about two hours after opening the box.

Notice the gap on the left side? The rubber contacts should be solid around the entire enclosure. I’m pretty sure it’s the top case and not the latch as well; slightly pressing down on the top of the unit shifts the gap to the right side of the laptop.

For size comparison purposes, the gap is slighly smaller than a 1/8″ stereo jack. I probably wouldn’t be concerned if I’d had the laptop for a few months, but I’d rather not get dust on the screen when it’s closed.

Apparently this problem isn’t completely unheard of online, but most of the posts seem to be from 2007 or older and are filled with far too much Internet lawyering rage. Since it’s a new unit, and I’d rather not have it in for repair right out of the box, Apple has claimed that they’ll email me some FedEx shipping labels so I can perform an exchange. They unfortunately won’t cross-ship the replacement, so I’ll have to blow away the drive tomorrow and re-copy all my music onto the replacement system when it arrives.

For what it’s worth: the labels have yet to show up in my inbox yet, but it’s the long weekend so I’ll cut them some slack.

Does anybody think I’m overreacting, or agree that this is something that shouldn’t happen? I never had the same issue with my white MacBook, so I’d at least like to see equal build quality between the two units. Not quite angry yet: just disappointed at the QC.