Bell Gets Slapped By The Competition Bureau… Hard

The Competition Bureau of Canada had a look at Bell Canada’s advertising. Today, they announced that they weren’t too thrilled about it and has decided to slap Bell silly:

Bell Canada has agreed to pay a penalty of $10 million for making misleading advertising claims, the federal Competition Bureau announced Tuesday.

Bell has also agreed to stop making the claims.

The penalty is the maximum amount allowed under the Competition Act.

So why did they get slapped this hard? Here’s why:

The Bureau found that Bell had, since December 2007, charged more than advertised for many of its services, including home phone, internet, satellite TV and wireless.

Additional fees, such as those related to TouchTone, modem rental and digital television services, were hidden from consumers in fine-print disclaimers and were mandatory, on top of the advertised prices.

So, Bell decided to settle this. But they didn’t go quietly:

In a release, Bell said it “fundamentally disagrees” with the Bureau’s findings.

“Bell’s advertising has always complied with all applicable laws and been comparable with common advertising practice past and present in the communications marketplace and other industries in Canada,” it said.

“However, Bell has decided to immediately resolve the issue and move forward by paying an administrative amount of $10 million.”

At least Bell decided to settle. Rogers when placed in a similar situation with their advertising regarding their Chatr brand got slapped with a similar $10 million fine decided to fight it. That’s a #fail in my mind when it comes to Rogers. Not that I’m giving Bell any props here as clearly they are just as bad.

While I’m at it, I deduct points from the Competition Bureau. They should have forced Bell to pay back consumers like they forced Rogers to do. That would have really sent a message that this sort of behavior is completely unacceptable. Still, it’s good that these telcos who can’t seem to treat consumers fairly get slapped for their crummy behavior.

Apple Time Capsule Teardown Shows Consumer Grade Drive Rather Than Claimed Server Grade Drive…. WTF?

Apple last week quietly released new 2 and 3 TB Time Capsule WiFi router/storage solutions. One of the things that Apple proudly advertises when they talk about the backup capabilities is this:

Time Capsule is your one place for backing up everything. Its massive 2TB or 3TB server-grade hard drive gives you all the capacity and safety you need. So whether you have 250 songs or 250,000 songs to back up, room is the last thing you’ll run out of. And considering all that storage and protection come packaged in a high-speed Wi-Fi base station starting at $299, data isn’t the only thing you’re saving.

So, Mac fanboi site Hardmac.com ripped one apart and found this:

On its website, Apple advertises on the fact that the Time Capsule runs on a “Server Grade” hard drive. On this label you can see that it is a simple Caviar Green disk, identical to the ones you can find about anywhere. Nothing special here.

Now Western Digital makes this drive and it’s intended for situations where you want low power consumption and less heat, which is important as previous versions of the Time Capsule ran rather hot. But it’s not server grade. What makes a drive server grade is the MTBF or mean time between failures. Typically something north of a million hours. Western Digital isn’t saying what their MTBF figure is for the Caviar Green because they don’t measure reliability that way, but it’s a safe bet it’s not in the same universe of server grade.

So Apple, are you just BS’ing your customers with this server grade claim or do you have the facts to back it up? Oh. Right. Apple doesn’t comment on stuff like this so we’ll likely never know. Too bad. Because this situation really stinks and Apple really needs to clear the air here.

Hey IT Nerd – What Do You Think About Video Game Bans Being Struck Down?

I have to admit that I was surprised by today’s decision to strike down bans of any sort when it comes to the sales of video games to minors. Here’s what The Globe And Mail had to say:

The Supreme Court rejected California’s argument that the Constitution’s free-speech guarantees under the First Amendment do not prevent a state from prohibiting the sale of violent video games to minors under 18.

“Our cases hold that minors are entitled to a significant degree of First Amendment protection. Government has no free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which they may be exposed,” Justice Antonin Scalia said in summarizing the court’s majority opinion from the bench.

Wow, that’s remarkably forward thinking. Here’s more forward thinking via the CBC:

The court said the U.S. has no tradition of specially restricting children’s access to depictions of violence.

“California’s claim that ‘interactive’ video games present special problems, in that the player participates in the violent action on screen and determines its outcome, is unpersuasive,” the ruling added.

You know what that means. If parents really want to stop their kids from playing Duke Nukem Forever, Team Fortress 2, or Call Of Duty: Black Ops, the answer is simple. They have to be parents and govern what their kids do. They have to say no when the cool new video game hits the shelves. They have to find other activities for their kids to do. They have to limit how much their kids play their Xbox 360, Wii, or PS3.

In other words, parents have to be parents. What a radical concept.

So what do I think of this decision? I think it’s good. I think it is the only logical decision. As I type this, people are not going to be happy. But once the smoke clears, people will see that this is the right call.

 

 

Rival Hacker Group Posts Real Names Of LulzSec Members

A group calling itself “The A-Team” has posted what it claims are the real identities of the members of the notorious hacker group LulzSec. From the sounds of it, they aren’t impressed with the groups antics:

The problem with Lulzsec/gn0sis’s “Hacktivist” mantra is that they lack the skills to keep it going. As such after SONY they couldn’t get into anything. So they switched their focus to just releasing random crap that didn’t mean anything. Then they started running out of things they could hack. So they put out requests for people to join them. That got them a few hits, and now they’ve switched their gears again to be “ANTI-SEC”. Whether or not this was an attempt at bring other groups out of the shadows (el8, h0no, zf0, etc), you can only speculate. But as of this writing: 6/24/2011 Sabu and Topiary are the only two people updating the twitter and releasing shit. Kayla is MIA. The gn0sis kids are gone in hiding somewhere.

From what we’ve seen these lulzsec/gn0sis kids aren’t really that good at hacking. They troll the internet and search for sqlinjection vulnerabilities as well as Remote File Include/Local File Include bugs. Once found they try to download databases or pull down usernames and passwords. Their releases have nothing to do with their goals or their lulz. It’s purely based on whatever they find with their “google hacking” queries and then release it.

Perhaps this is the real reason why they pulled the plug on themselves this weekend? We’ll never know because I doubt the world will ever get a straight answer from them. But I suspect that given the nature of the hacks they’ve done, The A-Team are going to be the least of their problems.

Final Cut Pro X = #epicfail? [UPDATED]

This past week, Apple released the latest version of their pro level editing software Final Cut Pro X. It should have been a big moment for Apple, but it’s turned into its biggest failure. As I type this, Final Cut Pro X has the lowest rating of all the apps in the App Store with some really biting comments:

Out of 742 customer ratings on the Apple Store right now, 45% are giving the software one star, the lowest rating possible. Comments include:

• “It’s as if they took a beautifully written novel and turned it into a children’s book.”
• “This makes no sense. How is it i can import a iMovie project but not a FCP project… What was apple thinking.”
• “Final Cut ‘Pro’ implies this is an app for working professionals. It’s not.”
• “I was excited about the new features and 64-bit support, but after running it for the past day, the sad reality has set in that the product we ultimately paid for takes editing in Final Cut Pro back at least 7 years.”

Hell, even Conan took shots at Final Cut Pro X.

When something like this goes mainstream, you know it’s bad.

Man. Apple really seems to have dropped the ball here. It also seems that they’re trying to address this. According to the New York Times, Apple says there are (pricey) workarounds available, or fixes on the way. But the question has to be, how the hell could Apple let things get this bad with one of their most important apps?

UPDATE: The video got pulled. Here’s a link to a CNET story that has the video.

LulzSec Pulling The Plug On Itself?

It seems that LulzSec has decided quit hacking. A Tweet appeared with a link to a document on Pastebin declaring that the group’s run of cybermischief was coming to an end. So is this a joke? Is it because that they know that the heat is on them from law enforcement? We’ll have to see.

Any thoughts?

LulzSec Hacks Arizona Law Enforcement….Leaks Classified Data

Those guys or girls from LulzSec are at it again. This time using the Pirate Bay, they’ve leaked “hundreds of private intelligence bulletins, training manuals, personal email correspondence, names, phone numbers, addresses and passwords belonging to Arizona law enforcement” which they call ”Chinga La Migra” (F**k the Border Patrol). Clearly a political move. Here’s what they had to say:

We are releasing hundreds of private intelligence bulletins, training manuals, personal email correspondence, names, phone numbers, addresses and passwords belonging to Arizona law enforcement. We are targeting AZDPS specifically because we are against SB1070 and the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona.

The documents classified as “law enforcement sensitive”, “not for public distribution”, and “for official use only” are primarily related to border patrol and counter-terrorism operations and describe the use of informants to infiltrate various gangs, cartels, motorcycle clubs, Nazi groups, and protest movements.

Every week we plan on releasing more classified documents and embarassing personal details of military and law enforcement in an effort not just to reveal their racist and corrupt nature but to purposefully sabotage their efforts to terrorize communities fighting an unjust “war on drugs”.

Hackers of the world are uniting and taking direct action against our common oppressors – the government, corporations, police, and militaries of the world.

See you again real soon! ;D

Well, this really ups the stakes. You can bet that some serious law enforcement time and effort is going to be spent to shut these dudes down. That’s because there’s no way that law enforcement is going to let this slide. I wouldn’t want to be LulzSec right about now.

Privacy Commissioner Calls Out Staples Over Serious Privacy Concerns

I’ve always wondered what happened when you returned a computer or some storage device to a big box retailer. My suspicion has always been that they are simply resold and the data isn’t erased. Now the Privacy Commissioner has confirmed my worst fears when it comes to Canadian Staples stores:

Staples Business Depot stores failed to fully wipe customer data from returned devices such as laptops and USB hard drives destined for resale, a privacy audit has found. The long-standing problem put customers’ personal information at risk, says Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart.

“Our findings are particularly disappointing given we had already investigated two complaints against Staples involving returned data storage devices and the company had committed to taking corrective action,” says Commissioner Stoddart.

“While Staples did improve procedures and control mechanisms after our investigations, the audit showed those procedures and controls were not consistently applied, nor were they always effective – leaving customers’ personal information at serious risk.”

Well. This is one great reason why I’m shouldn’t shop at Staples. Their response [Warning: PDF] to this is another reason to avoid them. Why? If you read it, it appears to minimize this issue. Here’s a third reason why you should avoid Staples. Watch this report on the CBC and listen to what their spokesperson says about 1:20 into the story. He argues that the risks are exaggerated.

Excuse me?

Clearly this shows that Staples isn’t interested in doing the right thing, never mind what they’re legally required to do. You might want to think about that the next time you choose a store to buy your next computer or hard drive from. I know that’s what I am going to.

Fido Launches Fido Trade Service To Help You Dispose Of Your Old Phone

Everytime I upgrade my cell phone or smart phone, I’m stuck with trying to figure out what to do with my old phone. The last couple, I’ve donated to women’s shelters, but it was hard work to find a way to do the right thing. Now I’ve got news that Fido has solved that problem for me going forward. So here’s what they had to say to me via e-mail:

FidoTRADE is a new program coming July 11th to Fido customers that will let them trade-in their used device, regardless of carrier, for a credit towards the cost of a new one or the renewal  of their Fido service.

This is the first nation-wide trade-in program of its kind from a wireless carrier in Canada. All devices collected through the trade-in process are returned to Flipswap who refurbishes and redistributes a large portion of the traded phones. Phones with no trade-in value will be recycled in an environmentally compliant manner.

FidoTRADE will be available in-store only at Fido’s 85 corporate stores and later this summer, across the national Fido dealer network. Not only is FidoTRADE  a great way for customers to get their next device for less, but it also allows them to dispose of their current devices in an environmentally responsible way.

This is a great idea as e-waste is a major problem. I have to hand it to them as this is going to be something is to sure to attract the more environmentally savvy. What do you think? Drop your comments below.

Firefox 5 Released…. Wait? Didn’t They Just Release Firefox 4?

Firefox 5 has just hit the streets today. Of course it is making its appearance shortly after Firefox 4 showed up. Why the quick release? Here’s the quick hits from the release notes:

• Added support for CSS animations
• The Do-Not-Track header preference has been moved to increase discoverability
• Tuned HTTP idle connection logic for increased performance
• Improved canvas, JavaScript, memory, and networking performance
• Improved standards support for HTML5, XHR, MathML, SMIL, and canvas
• Improved spell checking for some locales
• Improved desktop environment integration for Linux users
• WebGL content can no longer load cross-domain textures
• Background tabs have setTimeout and setInterval clamped to 1000ms to improve performance

All are worthy upgrades. Although Microsoft has had a few things to say about WebGL that weren’t all that positive. Mozilla doesn’t see it that way. Shock, not. So I would download away and post your impressions below.