Bus error: Jake Billo’s weblog

And so it begins. Should be an interesting next few months.

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.

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.

And the launch of the iPhone 3G is on in Canada, with the predictable scenario of shady dealers without the device in stock trying to boost sales commissions. This whole situation reminds me of the Xbox 360 launch, where Best Buy and some other retailers tried to bundle consoles with accessories and extended warranty plans.

In any event, the big news is that Rogers is launching a promotional data plan - $30 per month, 6GB of data including tethering, requiring a three year data contract. The early termination fee is $100. The plan is supposed to be a way to quiet down the people over at Ruined iPhone and stop the persistent rumors that Apple is shafting Rogers for device shipments.

Unfortunately, the promotion is only until August 31st, at which time we can expect to see data pricing return to Rogers’ usual standards. It’s better than no such plan at all, and I’d suggest early adopters get in on this one like they did with Telus’ $15/unlimited plan back last December.

On a positive note, people in the HowardForums thread are reporting that representatives are indeed adding the promotional plan to “gray-market” devices and BlackBerry devices. (”Gray market” apparently means non-Rogers branded, unlocked phones: I vote that we quit using the term because it implies these phones are illegal, when they’re merely .)

I’ll look into this plan when the Bold launches, but in the meantime I have an 8320 that won’t receive service books to fix. Going back to the 8700 seems slightly primitive.

Update: If you’re interested in dealing with a Rogers CSR and they’re not sure what data package you’re referring to, the code for this plan on a BlackBerry is BB6GBIS3.

Update 2: Here’s the official Rogers page for the plan.

This post continues the Zune review series. I received the device for free as part of a Matchstick promotion. My goal is to provide a technically engaging and impartial review for people interested in MP3 players. Other posts include

• Marketing in action: Matchstick sends out a Zune
• ChatThreads follows up on the Zune feedback sweepstakes

From futility to mass-market?

One thing that always struck me about the Zune is how futile the first Redmond effort seemed: when it launched in the United States (and US only), the iPod was definitely entrenched and all the reviews basically said the same things. Microsoft didn’t build the player - they simply tweaked a Toshiba Gigabeat and ran with it. The software at the time was a pretty skin on Windows Media Player that didn’t use the same library.

From my initial impressions, much of that has changed. The Zune software, in its 2.5th iteration, still has a very unique interface that might appeal to indie kids - but it’s snappy and stands out on the desktop. The hardware feels well-built and has wireless synchronization: a feature Apple can’t yet match.

Hardware first impressions

Zune arrives in compact, Apple-style packaging, although the encased plastic skin is hard to remove and caused immediate smudging of the screen. Removing the device from its container wasn’t as obvious as the iPod Touch removal process. The back, metal enclosure has a nice tactile feel and should resist scratching: this solves a huge problem with the iPod classic models that causes resale value to plummet.

The device didn’t have any battery charge by default. After plugging it into the PC, a very faint battery indicator appeared - although I thought a USB port had failed since the device didn’t appear to respond right away. Switching to a different USB port fired up my hard disk, and the IDE activity LED told me that a device was being connected. The screen displayed on zero charge is so dim that I had to get confirmation from a friend that the Zune was actually showing something.

While I didn’t get an accurate time estimate on the total charge time, it took less than an hour for the Zune to become active. I’d peg the MP3 player as fully charged (from zero to 100%) after four to five hours.

While the Zune is attached to the computer, all controls are inaccessible and the device simply displays “connected”. Synchronization activity is displayed with a slightly inaccurate percentage indicator, which looks nice but seems to always stall at 84%-85% completion when new songs are copied to the unit.

Using the “squircle”, a touch-sensitive control pad, is intuitive and works as expected. You can either touch (swipe) or click up, down, left or right on its surface. In playback mode, these directions perform the usual actions required from a portable music player (volume up, volume down, previous track and next track). Other screens use the directions to navigate left, right, up and down. Clicking the centre of the pad activates the currently selected item.

The “back” and “play/pause” buttons feel firm and make a distinctive click when pressed. It’s definitely possible to use the device while it’s still in a pocket, although users may want to disable touch sensitivity if this is the primary means of use.

On the device, anyone familiar with the Xbox Live “twist” user interface will be pleasantly surprised.

Categories, such as albums, artists and playlists are displayed across the top of the screen; items within that category can be scrolled up and down. The album browser displays a thumbnail of the associated image, and expand to two lines when highlighted, much like the active item in the “My Games” screen above.

(I don’t know how Avril got on there, or even why her pop-punk drivel is in my library. It’s definitely time to rate some of my music so this travesty can never occur again.)

The build quality of the device is excellent. Its solid construction and easy “gripability” provides a confident feel - I’m not concerned about dropping the Zune on the sidewalk or having it slip away from my grasp, unlike the iPod touch.

Audio quality on the unit itself is good, although the stock headphones leave quality to be left on the table. Using the premium headphones included with my review kit was a much better listening experience - they’re comparable to my favourite pair of Sony MDR-EX61 in-ear buds for audio range. The premium headphones also have magnetic backings so that they’re less likely to tangle in a pocket.

Compared to the BlackBerry 8320 that I’ve been using for basic MP3 listening on the bus, the Zune has a richer, more full bass sound on the same audio files. It’s definitely noticeable when switching from one device to another. This may be equalizer-correctable in the BlackBerry OS, but the software upgrade to OS 4.5 isn’t available on a wide scale yet. For now, my verdict is that the default Zune settings are quite good for standard music listeners.

More hardware details - such as FM radio support, podcasts and video playback will be detailed as I explore those features over the next few weeks. Here’s what’s ahead:

What’s impressed:

• Video playback appears to be smooth and looks great, even on the small screen.
• Support for FM radio is a unique feature that’s nice to have out of the box.
• The wireless synchronization works like expected without complaint.

What’s failed it:

• Slow performance when browsing the Pictures menu.
• Inconsistency in scrolling some menus: the wrap-around feature doesn’t work by touch.
• Overshooting artists and some other menu items by touch - reversing direction is not immediate.

Software first impressions

I’d already had the latest version of the Zune software installed, so there was no installation experience to speak of. To replicate the experience, I tried downloading and deploying it to a new Windows XP virtual machine - the process was fairly easy, barring the fact that running Windows Update concurrently caused the installer to fail. Finishing all the critical updates and rebooting the VM solved that issue, and the software installed without complaint. It’s hard to fault anyone but myself for that scenario.

I have all my music stored on a remote server, which isn’t a typical home user configuration but provides the most convenient way for my laptop and desktop to both use the same pool of media. Windows Media Player takes a long time to seek for the files, even over a gigabit LAN - and refuses to share content to my Xbox 360 without a series of long, painful permission changes.

Running the same process with the Zune software started badly. Windows Vista takes an inordinately long time (compared to Windows 2000, XP or any non-Windows OS) to enumerate all computers on the same workgroup. Simply expanding the Network icon started the hard drive churning - I switched over to My Computer,  mapped a network drive with the direct UNC path to my files, and switched back to the Zune software before the process finished.

After selecting the “M” network drive, the import was quick and displayed albums immediately. Unlike Windows Media Player, the background process appears to have increased priority, letting users get started listening to their music right away. This snappiness is an excellent change and bests every other audio player but Winamp.

Ratings in the Zune software are either nothing, a complete heart for “like”, or broken heart for “don’t like”. During the import process, the library seemed to import some metadata for these files from Windows Media Player at the equivalence of five stars for the “like” rating. Without the granularity of a standard 1-5 (plus zero for unrated) rating system, it’s difficult to customize playlists appropriately.

More software features and functionality will be detailed in an upcoming review, since the software is what really makes the device shine. Here’s a sneak peek:

What’s impressed:

• The find album info feature is accurate, consistently good and fixes ID3 tags without complaint.
• Interface effects are well-designed.
• When it comes to device software updates, the process is seamless:

What’s failed it:

• No mini-player mode, unlike iTunes or Windows Media Player 11’s toolbar. The equivalent is the Now Playing mode, which doesn’t offer album or artist sorting.
• Rating the current track involves switching to the “now playing” view. The collection also lacks a “go to the currently playing” command - Ctrl+L is one of my most-used iTunes shortcuts.
• Returning to a default view once you’ve filtered a search involves clicking from “artists” to “genres”, then back again. There’s no easy way to start at the default Collection screen again.

Social community first impressions

A large part of the Zune experience involves “the social”, which is a Windows Live ID-based system that assigns you a Flash-based card. The card displays a custom picture, background image, and recently played artists, and it can be embedded on other social networking profiles such as Facebook:

Unfortunately, the Facebook application is not always at its best:

When I clicked Sign In from the Zune software, it pleasantly surprised by displaying a list of all Windows Live Messenger accounts saved on the computer - a neat integration capability that you’d probably expect to see on a Mac. After providing the account password, I was prompted to accept updated terms of use through a browser, completely removing the immersive user interface experience. As per usual with Microsoft, the page redirected about four times and then attached to a Windows Live ID sign-in, which required the password yet again.

The next screen asked for some more personal information, most of which was already filled in the fields. A curious requirement was the Web site’s insistence on receiving a birthdate during signup. The information should already be present in my Windows Live ID account, but I’d have a hard time seeing why they’d need this detail: even complying with COPPA, they’d have known that detail when I initially attached my Xbox Live account to the Live ID. Overall, the signup seemed simpler than a comparable Apple/iTunes account, since Windows Live already had most of my information.

The final stage in the process launched the Zune software (even from Firefox) and prompted:

Did you know…?

Now that you have a Zune account, you can:

Join the Social, a beta online community where you can discover new music, share music with friends, and customize your Zune Card with your personal pictures and favorite songs.

Buy music and music videos and download free video and audio podcasts at Zune Marketplace.

Manage your account, configure privacy settings, and buy Microsoft Points online at Zune.net.

I was slightly offput to hear that the community features were still in beta, considering the software has already been through three major releases. Then again, the term “beta” these days seems to have been redefined to mean “lacks official support”.

Activating the Social component for the first time, my account was activated with this garish, zebra striped card. It would have been nice if Zune would have imported my avatar from Xbox Live’s selection, since the zune.net default selection of profile pictures and backgrounds leaves something to be desired.

Notice those non-striped avatars at the bottom? Along with my Xbox Gamertag list, I seem to have picked up some “friends” who are definitely not the same people I know from Xbox Live. My initial assumption was that they must have been default Microsoft-assigned accounts, but wasn’t sure if they were alter aliases of Xbox Live friends. I ended up having to look at each of the new profiles to find out why I had friendship foisted upon me.

Looking at “DJ Ms E”’s profile page on zune.net, all was explained:

This member of the Social is a Zune DJ. They’re automatically added to new members’ friends lists to get them started, and don’t count against your 100-friend limit.

It would have been nice to get more of a notification of who these additional friends were. Perhaps a badge or custom icon next to their profile image would have been a better cue than simply dropping them beside my existing Xbox Live friends. There’s also no way to remove these people from within the Zune interface - all remove requests are handled through the zune.net website.

It’s also interesting that this was the first time I’d heard about the 100 friend limit, and the limit includes Xbox Live friends. For people with distinctly different tastes in music and online gaming companions, I could see social butterflies easily running into problems here.

What’s impressed:

• The signup process is much less painful than I’d expected.
• Integration with Facebook is a nice touch.
• The Zune card appears to give badges or awards for listening to various types of music. Continuing along the lines of achievements is addictive and awesome!

What’s failed it:

• The Facebook application has occasional issues when clicking on the left-panel link.
• Horrible selection of backgrounds and avatars.
• Who are these people on my friends list, and why wasn’t I told about this earlier? And why can’t I remove them from within the application?

More impressions: marketplace, device synchronization and performance

What’s next for the Zune? I’m going to publish an in-depth look at the marketplace, syncing music and videos, and how well the software performs. Here’s a summary of what’s ahead:

• Marketplace: Not entirely there yet. Unknown error messages and content purchases just don’t work well. If content isn’t available in Canada, don’t display it!
• Music synchronization: Simplistic and easy - perhaps even too dumbed down. There’s no apparent way to fill the device with content, and autoplaylists are a shadow of Smart Playlist capabilities in iTunes.
• Performance: It’s a memory hog, but it’s only frozen once; all my data was saved out properly to boot. Zune beats iTunes hands down in this matter.

Be sure to check back soon for more impressions and thoughts - and maybe some more technical content!

If you’re lucky enough to have a BlackBerry device running OS 4.5, BlackBerry Internet Service is now enabled for Rogers and should also be ready for most - if not all other North American carriers.

4.5 OSes are officially available for most recent GSM/EDGE devices. I’d recommend staying away from beta releases, as they contain debugging utilities and aren’t as stable as carrier-certified versions.

To find out if your device has an official upgrade available, look at the stickied threads for your device at BlackBerry Forums. These forums include the 81xx, the 83xx and the 88xx.

If you don’t have OS 4.5, you can still add Hotmail, Windows Live and AOL accounts for push email through your carrier’s BIS site.

Here’s how to activate HTML email for devices running OS 4.5:

1. Sign into your carrier’s BIS site:

• Rogers
• Telus
• Bell
• Fido

2. From the site, click Service Books / Send Service Books.

3. When your device receives the service books, go into Messages / BlackBerry menu / Options and choose Email Settings. For each account, change “Enable HTML Email” to Yes.

I’ve been holding off on posting this because too many data rumors are lame, but BlackBerry Cool and CrackBerry have just announced that Rogers is upping their consumer BlackBerry data plans.

The bad news: nothing’s unlimited, and if the iPhone plans leaked yesterday are accurate then BlackBerry users are getting severely shafted. Finally, these plans are for BIS customers only. If you’re on an Enterprise Server, your choices are still $40 for 7MB, $60 for 25MB, and $100 for 1GB.

The plans are available at Rogers’ site and calling data/BlackBerry support (1-800-ROGERS1 and say “BlackBerry” at any possible opportunity, or *611 from your device). Here’s a summary of what you can get:

All of these new plans (except for the Flex Rate) have overage protection, which means that usage of over 60MB is only counted at $0.03/MB. Business plans that offer data pooling can’t take advantage of this feature either. Here’s how this works in practice:

• You’re on the 300MB plan ($30 base) and use 500MB in that month because you decided to run BitTorrent off your device.
• You’re charged for your base plan: $30 for 300MB
• You’re then charged $0.50 per MB, up to 60MB: another $30 for 360MB
• You’re then charged $0.03 per MB, for data after 60MB: another $4.20 for 500MB
• Total data bill is $30+$30+$4.20 = $64.20

The good news: the base 300MB is a significant amount on a BlackBerry device - I’ve never gotten close to this figure myself, and in fact had a hard time topping 60MB/month on my Telus package. The included data can also be used for tethering to a laptop, and people likely to tether are paying more appropriate rates for heavier usage.

Rogers’ site also indicates that these plans are available on monthly agreements, meaning that you shouldn’t have to sign a data contract to take advantage of these new offerings. Of course, if you’re using a hardware upgrade credit or buying a new device directly from Rogers, you may get locked into a data package for three years. My personal preference these days would be to get an unlocked device online and activate it with an existing contract, unless you need UMA support (Rogers Home Calling Zone.)

Since the iPhone plans are still just a rumor, I’m happy with a solid release of much more customer-friendly wireless data packages, and will try to get some of my clients and associates moved to these offerings.

From HowardForums: Bell is launching two new personal data plans similar to Telus’ Email and Web 30.

• Unlimited Personal Email & Internet BlackBerry 30
• Unlimited Personal Email & Internet Windows Mobile 30

On the BlackBerry, this package offers unlimited data since all traffic flows through the BIS browsing transport - the only thing restricted is tethering the device to a computer for Internet access, which is charged at $15/MB. US roaming is $8/MB, both figures which seem to fall in with the ridiculous state of Canadian wireless data charges.

While I personally don’t use Bell for wireless - and would definitely go with Telus over Bell if choosing between CDMA carriers - the company has a large number of BlackBerry devices provisioned. It’s a competitive move before the Rogers iPhone and BlackBerry Bold launch, and if you don’t need BES access, this might be a worthwhile plan to investigate.

From BerryReview.com:

RIM and Microsoft have tied together to bring tighter integration between Hotmail/Messenger and the BlackBerry. Just look at the promised features in the press release.

This is an awesome announcement - up until now, Bell in Canada and T-Mobile in the States have been the only carriers to offer MSN Messenger to their subscribers. Part of my work at RIM involved instant messaging provisioning and testing the Windows Live Messenger component in preproduction, so it’s awesome to hear that the service will be coming out on a wider scale. I expect it’ll be similar to Facebook’s deployment and this is a huge marketing chip for carriers like Rogers and Telus.

(I know a lot of people on Telus from HowardForums have tried to get the MSN Messenger client working, and you can’t do it without getting a Connection Error 65 - RIM has to enable your SIM or device for it. It’s not just a service book issue.)

Congrats to the teams at RIM and Microsoft on getting a deal worked out - MSN/Windows Live Messenger is definitely one of the most popular services here in Canada.

Additionally, this announcement will take Hotmail/Windows Live Mail from a second-class citizen (you had to pay for Hotmail Plus to access it on your device, ordinarily) to a top-tier mail account with push access. In effect, when using BIS, you’ll get the message on your device as soon as it lands in your inbox, and not from 2-15 minutes afterwards. Other providers with push email on the BlackBerry are Yahoo Mail and Gmail, and some GoDaddy hosted accounts.

I’ll post an update here once the release happens and I’ve had a chance to test the consumer software. With the release of the 9000Bold and this news, things are looking good for the future with BlackBerry devices.