Editorials

Oh so you think you’re Qt huh?

by Kyron John 10.21.2010

On the heels of their quarterly earnings report for Q3 2010, Nokia had made an announcement which they say clarifies and simplifies its developer and software platform strategy. This writer has his doubts.

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Wireless Waltz – A look at the wireless landscape in Canada Part II

by Kyron John 10.04.2010

In the first part of my series about the mobile industry in Canada, I shed some light on where things lie right now in terms of our networks, our rate plans and most importantly, our carriers. A great deal of the article was pertaining to Fido Solutions, a pioneer carrier of sorts that in the end couldn’t compete with the 3 bigger carriers that dominate the Canadian market now. Since Fido was acquired by Rogers in 2004, there hasn’t been anything resembling competition until very recently.

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NFC: The Next Mobile Disruption

by David 09.27.2010

Mobile devices are inherently disruptive technologies. They cause significant change and always have. Initially uncomfortable for consumers and businesses alike, the adoption of mobile form factors & device families can alter the consumer technology landscape and because of this, they can have huge impact on industries far beyond wireless technologies. In fact, we’ve already seen this happen in numerous areas. The introduction of the iPod & iTunes changed not only MP3 players, but also the music and movie industries. The introduction of Google Maps Navigation and free navigation for Ovi Maps significantly impacted Garmin, TomTom and other GPS device manufacturers. As mobile devices evolve, particularly smart phones, and integrate more valued features for consumers, the trail of markets impacted becomes deeper and wider.

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Hey Mobile Industry Review – I Can Do it Too

by Simon 09.26.2010

Here I am, browsing along the enjoyable and colorful internet, filled with rainbows and unicorn – all of a sudden I come across a post by Ewan MacLeod titled “Symbian’s stupid high hat thingy: Dump it today!”. Nice. Firstly I can tell right off the bat he has no clue what it is referring to. He later admits it was a slight slip-up. That’s perfectly fine, we all make mistakes and he never really claimed to be a mathematician but a mobile industry entrepreneur. I learned in GRADE 6 what exponentiation was. Speaking of grade 6, I was also probably still using a coloring book when I was that age – which I should have saved, as I could have sold my design to Google for their Android platform. Without .....

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Nokia World – More Than Just a Convention

by Simon 09.20.2010

I am keeping this short, but let’s get right into it. I went to my first Nokia World. It was a paid trip, including all accommodations and cherries on top. I spent a glorious week in London, England and met with well over a hundred people who are all, or at least were once, enthused about the same thing I am; mobile technology, and to quote Nokia – “It’s not technology, it’s what you do with it”. Well I must have come away with, or experienced something completely different than what I’m reading about on the internet.

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The Importance of Being Ovi

by David 09.07.2010

It’s an odd word. “Door,” in Finnish, Ovi has been the vision of Nokia for nearly a decade. A door to mobile connectivity, Ovi was conceived as a portal to a suite of connected services designed to significantly enhance and vastly improve the capabilities of mobile devices. Yet the realization of this vision is still just outside the grasp of the world’s largest mobile device manufacturer. Achieving this much maligned vision, however, is critical for Nokia, especially if they truly intend to compete in the North American smartphone market as they’ve indicated time and time again.

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The Truth About Why Your Smartphone Battery Sucks

by Simon 09.04.2010

Whether you’ve got a battery rated at 1500mAH, 1300mAH or are one of the unlucky with something even smaller – you’re probably complaining about your device not lasting long enough. Well I put it to you, that Linus never planned on his love-child to be run on portable, embedded or mobile devices. Yet here we are, the Mars Rover runs Embedded Linux, Linux on Wal-Mart P.O.S and handheld price scanners…and just about everybody who has purchased a smartphone in the past few years has a device that is loosely based on Unix, Linux or some other POSIX-compliant platform. I’m not saying it’s the fault of the operating system but the Linux kernel isn’t exactly disk and battery efficient without configurations; coupled with a journaling filesystem, 4 (if not more) extremely .....

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Wireless Waltz – A look at the wireless landscape in Canada Part I

by Kyron John 08.12.2010

Before I start going in on this post, I’d like to present you with some raw facts about Canada’s wireless situation. Canada is a country with a population of 33 million people and of those 33 million, roughly 2/3 of them are mobile phone subscribers. These 22 million subscribers have 3 national wireless carriers to choose from. Bell, Rogers and Telus all operate on HSPA+ networks that cover over 90% of the population (in addition to their “discount” brands Virgin Mobile, Fido and Koodo, respectively). In the past year, 3 new entrants have arrived but to call them national carriers would be misleading. Wind Mobile, Mobilicity and Public Mobile all purchased spectrum that was auctioned off by the government in Spring 2008 and launched their services in major Canadian cities .....

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Simplification

by Timi Cantisano 08.09.2010

What happens when you no longer have to be connected while on the go? You become simple. Your life isn’t dominated by constant bombardment from incoming emails, tweets, and IM messages. While to some this might sound crazy, I decided to cut back on all the “noise” and experience a simpler form, and enjoy a simpler mobile experience. When I decided it was for the simple reason of being satisfied. I wasn’t finding satisfaction anymore with my mobile experience. I explored different types of handset manufacturers without any results. Sure they were interesting (for the moment), but they couldn’t hold my attention. Its later that I would realize that I had made a fatal mistake a several months earlier that would put me into this mobile phone limbo. I had .....

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