Google Turn By Turn Navagation Comes To Canada And Europe For Android Users

If you’re an Android user in Canada and Europe and you’ve been lusting after that turn by turn navigation feature that the Americans and British have had for so long, it’s time to celebrate. According to a blog posting if you’ve got a smartphone powered by Android 1.6 or higher, then it’s time for a road trip:

Today we’re launching Google Maps Navigation version 4.2 in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland for Android devices 1.6 and higher. Google Maps Navigation is an Internet-connected GPS navigation or ‘satnav’ system that provides turn-by-turn voice guidance as a free feature of Google Maps.

Cool. Just hit up the Android market for version 4.2 of Google Maps Navigation and off you go. Just make sure you have a full tank of gas and you focus on the road rather than on your smartphone while driving.

Rogers Announces New “Rocket Stick”

My “best friends at Rogers” sent me an e-mail today announcing that they now have a new “Rocket Stick” for their customers:

I thought your readers might be interested in the latest addition to Rogers Rocket™ mobile internet portfolio—the Nokia CS-18, now available exclusively from Rogers.

This HSPA+ Internet stick is a modem and memory stick in one, and offers download speeds up to 21 Mbps plus up to 32 GB of expandable memory storage (microSD card not included).

The device is $0 with a two or three year term.

You can get more details from Nokia’s press release.

If you need data on the go, you may want to take a look at this “Rocket Stick” as you could lighten your laptop bag by having up to 32GB of storage and Internet access in the same device. Check it out today.

Rogers, Cogeco, Shaw, And Telus To Broadcast World Cup Third Place And Final Games In 3D

If you happened to drop some cash on a 3D TV, you’re a football (soccer for the North Americans reading this) fan and you live in Canada, here’s some news for you. Rogers (via my “best friends at Rogers”), Shaw (Warning: PDF), Cogeco, and Telus both announced that they will be doing a 3D broadcast of the third place and final matches in the 2010 World Cup in partnership with CBC. If you don’t have a 3D capable TV, don’t worry. The final two games will also be available in standard definition and in high definition. I’m sure this is neat for those early adopters who shelled out all that cash for 3D. So it would be interesting to see how many people actually watch a game in 3D. I have no clue how you would get those numbers, but it’s a question worth asking.

I note that the only television provider who isn’t part of this is Bell. You have to wonder why that is.

BREAKING NEWS: Apple Releases Safari 5 [UPDATED]

Apple just posted a press release [Link broken: See below] announcing the release of Safari 5 on their website:

Apple today released Safari 5, the latest version of the world’s fastest and most innovative web browser, featuring the new Safari Reader for reading articles on the web without distraction, a 30 percent performance increase over Safari 4, and the ability to choose Google, Yahoo! or Bing as the search service powering Safari’s search field. Available for both Mac® and Windows, Safari 5 includes improved developer tools and supports more than a dozen new HTML5 technologies that allow web developers to create rich, dynamic websites. With Safari 5, developers can now create secure Safari Extensions to customize and enhance the browsing experience.

Okay. So if it’s available today, why can’t I find it at apple.com/safari or through software update? Perhaps their PR group jumped the gun? It’s also interesting that there was no mention of it during the WWDC event earlier today. Another interesting thing, Bing is in this browser too as a search engine choice. Weird. But it should be available at some point today for Windows and Mac.

UPDATE: Download away! However I will note that the original press release that I linked to earlier has been pulled. That suggests to me that the press release went out early. Here’s the new press release.

Steve Jobs Speaks From WWDC…. Apple Fanbois Go Nuts [UPDATED x3]

Today is the opening of the World Wide Developers Conference which means that Apple God CEO Steve Jobs usually has something to announce. So without further ado, here’s the major points conveyed to the thousands of Fanbois in attendance:

• The iPad will get an update “later this month” to allow in device PDF Viewing.
• “The Steve” spent some time defending both HTML5 and the App Store approval process which have both created all sorts of negative attention for Apple. He claims that 95% of apps are approved within 7 days and the ones that are rejected are kiboshed because they crash, use private APIs, or it doesn’t work the way the developer said it would. Just a thought, I don’t think that this explanation is going to be enough to make the critics go away.
• Jobs also mentioned a Nielsen study which says that in the US the number one smartphone is RIM with 35% marketshare, followed by iPhone with 28%, Windows Mobile  at 19%, and Android at 9%. I find it difficult to believe that Android is only at 9% in the US. But I guess he had to find a study that minimizes their biggest threat.
• Jobs announced the new iPhone 4 which pretty much is the same one that was lost in a bar by an Apple engineer and led to a real circus on the Interwebs and other media. It’s (as we already know) thinner and uses a MicroSIM card, and has an integrated antenna. One thing that popped out today is that the new iPhone has a Retina Display. Never heard of it? Neither have I. But according to “El Jobso,” the display has four times the amount of pixels compared to a regular display. The net result is really sharp text and images. Steve would have demoed how webpages look and some other things related to this display, but the demo didn’t work due to WiFi issues (or perhaps he was using AT&T and didn’t want to admit it). One thing is for sure, someone is going to get fired over this. But back to the iPhone 4. They’ve added a 3 axis gyroscope, and they’ve tied the accelerometer, compass, and gyroscope together for six axis of movement. Gamers rejoice as that will make games way more fun. The camera is a 5 megapixel one with a backside illuminated sensor and a LED flash for great low light shots.  Oh yeah, it does 720P video too. It will come in 16GB and 32GB flavors. I’ll let you look at the specs on Apple.com but I’ll say this, everything that Gizmodo said in their report on the iPhone that they “acquired” is accurate. Clearly that was the best $5000 that they ever spent. I hope they don’t get tossed in the slammer over it. You can pre-order yours on June 15th (Assuming you’re in the US, France, Germany, UK, or Japan) and they will start shipping on the 24th. They’ll be shipping to more countries “in July.”
• Apple has ported iMovie to the iPhone. The question is, why wouldn’t I just pull the video into my Mac and edit it in iMovie? But I guess “The Steve” feels that people want it because it’s coming to your iPhone for $4.99 USD.
• They’ve renamed the iPhone OS to iOS4. They’ve added Bing (I’m guessing that’s a slap at Google) to the available search engines, plus a bunch of other updates including multi-tasking, iBooks, and the aforementioned PDF viewer. It will be available “soon.” One thing that jumps out at me is that iOS is a Cisco trademark. So are Apple and Cisco going to go toe to toe in court and be forced to make nice again? I digress. It will be a free update to iPod Touch users (finally!) and iPhone 3Gs and 3G users (although iPod Touch and iPhone 3G users won’t have all the new cool features) which will be available on June 21st.
• iAds will be available to developers for in product advertising that will help to keep the cost of apps down. Great…. Having said that, the demo that he showed looked very interactive. iAd will go live July 1st for iOS4 devices.
• The “one more thing” that Jobs is famous for was a feature called FaceTime which is on the new iPhone 4. It allows for video calling from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 (given that it has a front mounted camera). It only works with WiFi, at least for now. According to “The Steve” he has to work a bit with the carriers which I think means that AT&T’s network isn’t up to snuff for this just yet. Also, it’s based on “open standards.” Given Apple’s HTML5 demo page, I’ll take that with a grain of salt.

When Apple decides to post the QuickTime video online. I’ll post it here. But in the meantime, please post a comment or two below with your thoughts.

UPDATE: My “best friends at Rogers” e-mailed me to let me know that they had a new posting on RedBoard that states that Rogers and Fido will be selling the new iPhone “in the coming weeks.” Any other carriers want to give me their plans for the new iPhone?

UPDATE #2: According to this blog post, Cisco has licensed the iOS name to Apple.

UPDATE #3: The Video is now up.

Apple’s HTML5 Page Only Usable With Safari…. So Much For Web Standards

In my last story, I posted a link at the end of it noting the existence of Apple having a page promoting the use of HTML5 and other so called “web standards.” I decided to browse around this site with Firefox for Mac and noticed this:

So I guess that Firefox isn’t open enough and standards based enough. Ditto for Google Chrome which didn’t work either. But lo and behold when I tried the same page with Safari and it worked just fine. Imagine that. Now to be fair, if you change your Firefox or Chrome browse to report itself as Safari, you can get this page to work (more or less). But the bottom line is this: Apple has created a page that has done nothing but act as a platform to promote Safari and not to promote open web standards. Way to go Steve Jobs! You’ve just proven that you’re nothing but a hypocrite. That really damages whatever credibility you had in the Flash vs HTML5 argument.

I guess that means that Apple has become Microsoft version 2.0. Suddenly Microsoft doesn’t seem so evil.

Flash & Acrobat Vulernable To Remote Hijacking…. Meanwhile Steve Is Laughing At Adobe

Adobe. You have some explaining to do.

Adobe dropped this little bombshell on the universe late yesterday. Apparently if you run Flash or Acrobat (and lets face it, who doesn’t other than Steve Jobs), you could be open to remote crashes and remote hijacking. Oh yeah, Mac, PC, UNIX are all open to these attacks. Adobe recommends moving to the release candidate for Flash, and deleting authplay.dll to keep you safe until Adobe gets around to updating things. Meanwhile I’m going to guess that Apple is going to take full advantage of this and illustrate how bad Flash is.

Oh wait. They already have.

Canadian Government Revives Copyright Bill… Here We Go Again

The Canadian Government who tried to introduce a rather poorly thought out, highly restrictive, highly punitive, copyright revisions a couple of years ago are at it again. Industry Minister Tony Clement yesterday introduced a new version of that bill that has the following “features:”

• Anyone convicted of bypassing the digital rights management of anything will be subject to a fine of up to $5,000. But if the circumvention of DRM is done for profit, then the fine is raised to $1 million.
• Downloaders of copyrighted materials will face a fine of $5,000, down from the present day maximum of $20,000 that to my knowledge has never been enforced.
• Canadians will be allowed to use copyrighted materials to create mashup videos for sites such as YouTube, and the law books will finally acknowledge that commonplace activities such as recording TV, radio and internet broadcasts are okay. The same applies for backing media for personal use or archival purposes. That is as long as you don’t screw with the digital rights management.

So it is better than their last attempt, but there are still issues with it:

Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa law professor and an advocate for more flexible copyright law, called the bill flawed but fixable. He said it contains marked improvements over otherwise very similar legislation proposed in 2008.

Prof. Geist lauded the expansion of exceptions that allow education institutions to use copyrighted materials as well as allowances for Canadians to employ them in producing satire or parody.

But he said the legal supremacy given to digital locks is still a big drawback, adding that he worries it will encourage other copyright owners to add such encryption to products.

“It’s one thing to tell consumers we’re now legalizing some of your everyday activities like the act of making a backup copy … but to suggest those rights cease to exist the moment someone puts a digital lock on that same material, I think throws out the very balance the government was hoping to achieve,” Prof. Geist said.

So while I applaud the Canadian Government for attempting to come up with more balanced legislation, they need to go further.  Canadians shouldn’t hesitate to let their MPs know that a better balance is required.

Boy Is Rogers Busy! They Release Some Phones And Win A Lawsuit All In The Same Day

I’ll start with the lawsuit. No not THAT lawsuit. Bell sued Rogers for using the term “most reliable.” Rogers prevailed today in round one which allows them to use this term in Ontario, but:

Bell spokesperson Mark Langton disagreed with the decision, saying the ads named Bell, specifically, and featured third-party research that Rogers’ said proved its claim.

“Rogers has been making unsupported claims about Internet speed and reliability since 2008, but this was in effect a new claim,” he said. “The decision on the injunction is disappointing because Rogers’ service isn’t faster or more reliable than Bell’s, and it means their misleading claims will continue until we get to trial.”

Charming. Another situation where only the lawyers win.

On another front I got not one, but two e-mails from “my best friends at Rogers” letting me know that the Blackberry Pearl 9100 as well as the Acer Liquid e are now available. The Blackberry Pearl 9100 is… Well it’s a Blackberry. But the Acer Liquid e sounds really cool (at least on paper). I’ll let Rogers give you the 411:

The device features

-       Android OS 2.1
-       a powerful 768 MHz QualComm Snapdragon processor
-       a large 3.5” touch screen
-       5.0 MP megapixel camera

The device is $49.99 on a three year voice and data plan with a minimum monthly service fee of $45.

Both phones are available today. But I have to admit that these Android phones are starting to look good to me.

Microsoft Slaps Back At Google Over The Dumping Of Windows…. Shock…. Not….

The Evil Empire Microsoft didn’t take long to fire back at Google over word that they were being dumped in favor of LINUX and Mac. In a blog posting, Brandon LeBlanc who is the Windows Communication Manager had this to say:

There is some irony here that is hard to overlook. For starters, check out this story from Mashable a few months ago where it was reported that Yale University had halted their move to Gmail (and their move to Google’s Google Apps for Education package) citing both security and privacy concerns.

Um, excuse me. The article says DELAYED and not HALTED. The two terms aren’t interchangeable. Just thought I’d point that out. So if that was an attempt to bitch slap Google, that attempt was a failure. But let us see what they said about the actual issue at hand:

When it comes to security, even hackers admit we’re doing a better job making our products more secure than anyone else. And it’s not just the hackers; third party influentials and industry leaders like Cisco tell us regularly that our focus and investment continues to surpass others.

Hackers said that Microsoft is better at making their products more secure than anybody else? What about Charlie Miller the Pwn2Own winner who said the exact opposite? I guess he doesn’t count.

Sorry Microsoft. Google dumped you which deprives you of a lot of revenue from Windows licenses. I get that having that happen to you might hurt a lot. But a blog posting where you play fast and loose with some of the facts isn’t going to help your cause. Building better software does. BTW, that’s true for Apple, LINUX, and everybody else too.