Google Is Inching Closer To Being “Evil”

I’m really starting to dislike Google. Why? I was checking out their official blog and found this entry. Almost a month ago, Google in a separate blog post said that they collected a ton of information including photos, WiFi network info, and 3D building images. Apparently Google is now admitting to “accidentally” collecting personal data while looking for positioning data during Google’s Street View excursions. What would that data be? Here’s what Google said:

But it’s now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products.

Charming. But according to Google, you don’t have to worry about that:

As soon as we became aware of this problem, we grounded our Street View cars and segregated the data on our network, which we then disconnected to make it inaccessible. We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and are currently reaching out to regulators in the relevant countries about how to quickly dispose of it.

You’ll excuse me if I don’t exactly trust them on that given their problems with Buzz.

Now to be fair, they’re not the only people who have been caught collecting this sort of data. Just take a look Skyhook for example and the circus that their privacy issues have created. But this is likely something that Google didn’t need. How they handle this latest privacy issue with their services will determine if they ever be can be trusted again.

HTC Slaps Apple With Patent Infringement Lawsuit…. Shock, Not

For those of you who were wondering how HTC would respond to being hit with a patent infringement lawsuit a couple months ago by Apple, here’s your answer via a HTC press release:

“As the innovator of the original Windows Mobile PocketPC Phone Edition in 2002 and the first Android smartphone in 2008, HTC believes the industry should be driven by healthy competition and innovation that offer consumers the best, most accessible mobile experiences possible,” said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of North America, HTC Corporation. “We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones.”

It almost goes without saying that HTC wants to stop Apple from importing and selling the iPhone, iPad, and iPod in the US as that is usually what happens in cases like these.

Game on folks!

iPad International Ship Date Slips To June 7th

I was browsing apple.ca/store today and came across this in the iPad section (click to enlarge):

You’ll note that the ship date is now June 7th and not May 28th as I’ve previously reported. So my prediction of Apple having short supplies of the iPad seem to be accurate. There’s no official word from Apple on this, but I suspect they’ll have to say something when the fanbois notice.

Bye Bye Bell! – Part 6

I came home today to another Bell Canada bill. I was prepared to go ballistic as they already billed us for our last month as I mentioned previously after we moved to Teksavvy Home Phone. So I opened it and found some good news and some bad news:

• The good news is that Bell Canada credited our account $37.28 for the period after March 29th.
• The bad news is that Bell Canada billed us $15.38 for a “Home Phone Deactivation Charge”

The scumbags.

My wife is going to call them to get them to send a cheque and to fight the “Home Phone Deactivation Charge” as we’ve found evidence on DSL Reports that it is likely a cash grab by Bell. The interesting thing is that the amount of the charge seems to vary from person to person, which supports my opinion that Bell is simply trying to extract cash for no reason other than they think that they can.

The other thing that we’ll be doing is filing a complaint with the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) as this is completely unacceptable. Rumor has it that Bell deals with these complaints long before the CCTS renders a decision because all their decisions are made public and Bell doesn’t want anybody to know how bad they really are. But judging from the comments on Ellen Roseman’s Blog, lots of people have already concluded that Bell is pretty bad.

I’ll update you as to what happens next as this saga appears to be far from over.

Rogers Releases iPad Data Plans For Canadians…. But They Have An “Oops” Moment

Rogers has released pricing for iPad 3G data access. Here’s the 411:

• 250 MB for $15 + WiFi (Includes free unlimited access to all Rogers WiFi Hot Spots)
• 5 GB for $35 + WiFi (Includes free unlimited access to all Rogers WiFi Hot Spots)

All plans are available contract free which means you can kill them at any time.

Now when you compare this to what AT&T offers in the United States, you’ll find one glaring omission: An unlimited data plan. Clearly Rogers isn’t interested in going there. Here’s the logic of why Rogers has gone this route from a post on Rogers Redboard:

Customer experience shows that our 250mb/5GB plans will be more than enough for virtually all our customers. 99.8 per cent of our iPhone customers use less than 5GB of data. As the tablet is a new category, it’s too early to say if customers will use more or less data than they do for iPhone. But even for our rocket stick/embedded laptop customers, 95.6 per cent use less than 5GB per month.

Okay. But consider this. Carriers who offer unlimited plans are counting on the fact that most people won’t go absolutely nuts surfing the net which would make an unlimited data plan a cash cow to a carrier… At least in theory. The other thing is that the optics of having an unlimited data plan gives a carrier a better perception in the public eye. Even AT&T who have a craptastic reputation gets some brownie points from having an unlimited data plan. Rogers may want to take those points under consideration.

One thing that does causes me to pause when it comes to this announcement is that I’m guaranteed to be spending a lot of cash with Rogers if I have an iPhone (or some other smart phone) and an iPad. There was a posting on the Apple website that referenced a plan that allowed you to share your minutes with another data plan for $20. But Rogers says that this was an “error” and all references to this plan have been removed. That’s a big mistake in my mind as Rogers offers tethering with the iPhone for example. That’s a massive reason for me NOT to get a iPad with 3G. Apparently others feel the same as this “error” has created a bit of a P.R. nightmare which reminds me of their last P.R. nightmare that involved an Apple product. You’ll recall that Rogers took a while to fix that mess. One hopes they fix this rather quickly, otherwise they may find that not a lot of people will be interested in signing up with Rogers for iPad 3G service.

Nokia Sues Apple Again…. Fourth Time The Charm?

For those of you keeping score at home (but if you’re not, here’s a link to what’s happened so far), Nokia is suing Apple for the fourth time for patent infringement. I guess that three times wasn’t enough or something. In a press release, Nokia said the following:

The patents in question relate to technologies for enhanced speech and data transmission, using positioning data in applications and innovations in antenna configurations that improve performance and save space, allowing smaller and more compact devices. These patented innovations are important to Nokia’s success as they allow improved product performance and design.

Here’s the interesting part: Nokia’s filed this one in the Western District of Wisconsin. The idea being that a decision might come down in a year or so. I wonder why they’re doing that? What’s also interesting is that they’re clearly targeting the following technologies:

• The Apps Store
• Turn-by-turn navigation and mapping

In any case, I will wait patiently wait for the Apple countersuit that will surely appear shortly.

iPad Will Appear On May 28th Internationally…. Good Luck Getting One

If you live in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, I have good news for you. You’ll be able to maybe get the iPad on May 28th. But there’s more to it than that:

Customers can pre-order all iPad models from Apple’s online store in all nine countries beginning on Monday, May 10. In the US, Apple has already sold over one million iPads and customers have downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store, as well as over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore.

That sounds good, but keep in mind that Apple has had problems keeping them in stock. I don’t expect this to be any different when these nine countries get the iPad. Another thing to consider is that both versions of the iPad will be available, so I hope that the telcos in these countries have everything ready to go so that they don’t end up like AT&T.

We’ll see how this turns out on the 28th, but my advice would be to pre-order on the 10th.

An Open Letter To “My Best Friends At Rogers”

Now to be honest, we’ve haven’t always seen eye to eye on things. But I must admit that out of all the companies that I write about, you guys are the most responsive when it comes to me asking for comment, or letting me know about new things that you’re doing. You’ve even let me test drive your products. Now I’d like to flip the script and make a suggestion that I hope that you’ll take to your management and implement quickly. With the CRTC decision to implement usage based billing on Canadian DSL users, I feel that you have a tremendous opportunity to pick up market share from those users as they are likely looking for options. With that in mind, here’s how I think you could leverage this situation to grow your profits market share:

• Make the lowest tier that you offer 5 Mbps downstream/512 Kbps upstream and price it at $35 a month with a 100 GB cap. Then I would keep the rest of your tiers the same, but increase the caps to the following:
  • Express: 150 GB a month
  • Extreme: 200 GB a month
  • Extreme Plus: 250 GB a month
  • Ultimate: 300 GB a month
• Upgrade your current lite and ultra-lite customers to this new 5Mbps tier. That would score some major brownie points with those users.
• While you’re at it, you may want to play with your pricing a bit. By that I mean lowering every tier above the 5 Mbps tier by about $5 – $10 a month.
• I’d also offer static IPs as there are many legitimate reasons why a consumer may want a static IP that doesn’t involve something that is bandwidth hogging. I’d charge $5 a month for that and I’d even suggest that you aggressively go after those who use static IPs to set up a torrent server or something. I’m cool with that. Really, I am.
• Reduce the overage charges to a flat rate of $0.50 a month regardless of what tier you’re on. Think about it: You want people to go over their caps so that you can make money. But you have to make it affordable so that people won’t think twice about it. This price point is one that meets that objective.

Now, readers who don’t work for Rogers are going to be thinking “where’s the unlimited plan?” There isn’t one, deal with it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Bandwidth isn’t free. People should pay for what they use. Period.

So given the current climate, how about it? I’m pretty sure that you’ll really turn the Canadian Internet market on it’s head if you did that. You’d pick up a pile of customers (with yours truly being at the front of the line) and make your shareholders a pile of cash. Isn’t that what business is all about?

I look forward to your response.

Regards,

The IT Nerd.

Rogers Announces New Options For Cell Phone Users Who Travel To The US

Boy is Rogers busy this week. I got another e-mail from “my best friends at Rogers” today announcing some new options for their customers who travel to the US:

“Rogers has made some changes to some of its long distance mobile add ons. These add ons are voice options that can be added to an existing voice plan on a wireless device for one month intervals.

New North American add ons replace the existing U.S. and Canada add ons, meaning customers can now access a single bucket of minutes anywhere in North America.

The new plans are available now.

Rogers
·       $5/month – For 50 long distance minutes ($.10/min)
·       $35/month – For unlimited long distance minutes

Fido
·       $5/month – 50 long distance minutes ($.10/min)

Customers can select the new add ons by calling 1-866-Rogers1 or online at Rogers.com.

For details check out: http://www.rogers.com/web/content/add-ons/longdistance.

It really seems that this combined with some other recent announcements, Rogers is really trying to address the needs of those who travel. It wasn’t that long ago that if you travel and dared to use your mobile phone or smart phone outside of Canada, you could expect a really big bill. That now seems to be changing. Hopefully there’s more coming to help those who travel to Europe or Asia. That would really be something.

Usage Based Billing Approved By CRTC…. Canadian DSL Users Get Screwed

It’s a sad day in Canada. The CRTC has condemned DSL users in Canada to being screwed by Bell Canada by approving usage based billing to ISPs that resell Bell Canada DSL service. The CBC does report that there is a catch:

The regulator attached a key caveat to the approval, however, in that Bell must apply usage-based billing to all of its retail customers before it can implement the scheme with its wholesale internet service providers.

Bell will therefore need to move any customers it has on unlimited downloading services onto new usage-based plans before it can apply the same scheme on a wholesale basis.

This is a useless condition. Bell has moved it’s high speed Internet users to usage based billing schemes ages ago. So the fact that this is in the decision means nothing.

All that this decision does is reduce competition by making independent ISPs just like Bell, but without Bell’s revenue structure. The net result is that they’ll be run out of business. Thus limiting choice for Canadian Consumers. That’s not a shock given that the CRTC is founded and consists of members of the telecom industry. The only way for crap like this from happening is to ditch the CRTC, which is something that I’ve written about previously.

Until that happens, it’s time to for Canadians to send their MP an e-mail telling them to fight this rather craptastic decision.