Fourth Generation iPad and iPad Mini Coming To Telus And Rogers

Within an hour of each other, both Telus and Rogers e-mailed me to to say that they are going to carry the Fourth Generation iPad and iPad mini.

• Telus customers will be able to buy the new iPads at TELUS retail locations. For more information on pricing please visit https://mobility.telus.com/en/ON/ipads/ipad_mini.shtml or https://mobility.telus.com/en/ON/ipads/ipad_retina.shtml.
• Rogers customers will be able to buy the new iPads at Rogers retail locations. For more information on pricing please visit http://www.rogers.com/web/content/ipad.

Both companies will have them available shortly and both companies will offer a range of data plans that are available without a contract so customers can activate or cancel a plan at any time.

Oh, if you’re new to iPad you can get the 411 on the iPad here. Check it out if you’re in the market for an iPad.

Review: Google Nexus 4 – Part 2

The camera that comes with the Google Nexus 4 is 8MP with a 4x zoom that has a couple of cute tricks. While you can record, you can snap stills and it has a pretty good burst mode. To test this camera, I once again visited Pearson International Airport and I went to the west side of the airport where planes were landing. First the stills. Click on them to see them in full resolution:

As for the video, the Nexus 4 will do 1080P video as evidenced by this example. Don’t forget to set it to full screen and choose 1080P:

The one thing that I note is that the audio sounds a bit flat on this phone versus other phones I’ve tested recently.

Now, how about the battery life? It’s going to get you through the day and into the next with average usage which is pretty good. Another thing that I’ll give the Nexus 4 credit for is the fact that it has haptic feedback so that typing feels a bit more realistic which is important for guys like me who learned to type on a typewriter. Finally, the sound quality is good. I could head callers and they could hear me just fine.

So, what’s the verdict? Here’s why you may be a candidate to buy this phone:

• You are someone who wants a smartphone with a stock version of Android so that you can customize it exactly the way you want it.
• You hate all the bells and whistles that come with Android smartphones because you want to keep it basic.
• You want a smartphone with the Android OS and you want to keep costs down. After all, it’s $49 on a 2 year term which is hard to beat.

Now if you’re someone who want an Android smartphone with things like HTC’s Sense UI or something similar, or you want it to come with a ton of built in apps and functions out of the box, this isn’t the phone for you. Having said that, I think that this smartphone will attract more people than it turns off because of the fact that it’s a basic smartphone at a excellent price. Check it out if you’re in the market for an Android smartphone and I think you might agree.

Review: Google Nexus 4 – Part 1

It seems lately that I am really on a roll with reviews. The latest review that I have for you is the Google Nexus 4 provided to me by Telus. And I’ll get right to the elephant in the room. It’s running Android 4.2. But it’s doing so in it’s purest form. There’s no customizations like the ones you would find with Samsung or Sony phones. Now that’s going either be a non issue or a huge turn off. For me it was a bit of a shock as I’ve been reviewing phones from HTC and Samsung recently that were running heavily customized versions of Android. But I got over it quickly. You might want play with one and see what you think of it before whipping out your credit card.

It’s about the size of my iPhone 5 and it feels good in my hand. However, it’s yet another phone that attracts fingerprints like crazy. You’ll be cleaning this phone frequently. It feels solidly constructed and feels like a quality piece of hardware. One thing that caught my eye is the back of the phone. There’s glass panel protecting a dark shimmering dot matrix pattern on the back of the phone which looks really unique. Though I wonder how it will stand up to being in a pocket with change and car keys. Speaking of pockets, it fit in the pockets of my dress pants fine but it was a bit snug in my jeans. For the record, I’m talking about the front pockets as I never put phones in my back pockets.

The screen is absolutely stunning. It’s a 4.7-inch 1280×768 display which has razor sharp text and is viewable in all lighting conditions. Pictures are absolutely vivid. I would say that it is on par with the iPhone 5 at worst. It has a quick Quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor running at 1.5GHz along with 2GB of RAM. It does NOT feel slow at all. However, one area that you should make note of is the fact that it only has 16GB of memory and you can’t expand it. So you will have to be careful what apps you have and what else you store on the phone. It’s a HSPA phone that the specs say will top out at 42 Mbps. My testing with Speedtest.net says that I got 10 Mbps downstream and 3Mbps upstream. Not the fastest speeds that I’ve seen from a phone recently. But still faster than my DSL connection.

As for the built in apps that come with the Nexus 4, it’s comes with not much other than the basic apps that you find on a stock Android install. That leaves you to add whatever apps you want to the phone. Think of it as a very open canvas. For some users, that’s not a bad thing. But if you want something that gives you a more out of the box experience with a ton of preinstalled apps, Samsung or HTC has a phone with your name on it. Having said that, i will say this. Telus was smart enough to not do anything with this as there are users who will love the fact the phone comes with a stock version of Android in every respect. As for the navigation system on the Nexus 4 phone which as usual is provided by Google Maps, it does turn by turn navigation with spoken street names which is good in my books. I have no complaints on that front.

In part two of this review, I’ll cover the camera and battery life and wrap up a few loose ends. Stay tuned.

Telus / Mobilicity Deal Nixed By Feds

I must admit that this was a plot twist that I didn’t see coming. The Canadian Government has said “nine” to a proposed buyout of Mobilicity by Telus. Here’s what what Industry minister Christian Paradis said:

“Our government has been clear that spectrum set aside for new entrants was not intended to be transferred to incumbents,” Paradis said Tuesday at a news conference in Ottawa.

He doesn’t stop there. If anyone else was thinking of buying a upstart wireless company, that likely isn’t going be allowed:

Under the rules of the 2009 auction through which Mobilicity came into existence, any new wireless carriers were prohibited from selling their spectrum to an incumbent within five years. That came into question last month when Telus emerged with a $380-million bid to take over Mobilicity.

“We will not waive this condition of licence and will not approve this, or any other transfer of set-aside spectrum to an incumbent [within the five-year limit],” he said.

This alone isn’t going to mean lower prices for cell phone users in Canada, but it does show that the Canadian Government doesn’t like the current situation. However, I still think that they need to take stronger action to bring Canada in line with the rest of the world in this regard. Let’s see if they do more to help consumers.

Telus Wins Approval To Buy Mobilicity….. Consumers Lose

If you’ve been hoping for lower cell phone bills, you may want to stop hoping. The purchase of upstart cell provider Mobilicity by Telus which I reported on previously has been approved by an Ontario court:

The deal has already been approved by Mobilicity’s bondholders, which means final OK from Canada’s Competition Bureau and Industry Minister Christian Paradis are all that remain in terms of regulatory hurdles.

The issue with that approval will be what happens to Mobilicity’s spectrum licence, which is currently set to expire in 2014.

So there are still hurdles to overcome. But quite honestly,I do not see those hurdles as being an issue. The net result is that there will be one less player in the market at the end of this. As a result, consumers will still continue to pay the highest cell phone rates on planet earth. That’s a horrible distinction to have. Sadly, the Canadian Government’s desire to do something about that isn’t something that is on their to-do list.

Hey IT Nerd! Can You Comment On The Buyout Of Mobilicity?

My thoughts on this go something like this. Mobilicity approached Telus to make this deal happen according to this Telus press release. That says to me that they couldn’t make a go of it and are looking to Telus to keep them as a going concern. This may be a trend as rumor has it that Wind is looking for a buyer as well. What that means is that the Canadian Government’s attempt to lower cell phone prices, which are among the highest in the world down has failed. If this deal were to go ahead, that would not change.

Now that’s likely going to make someone ask “what will change this situation?” The way I see it, there are only two choices. the Canadian Government could pass legislation to force incumbent cell companies (read: Rogers, Bell, Telus) to share infrastructure. This was done before when the government wanted new players in the the telephone space years ago. Now I’m not in fan of heavy handed tactics like this, but it does work to a degree so I would be okay with it. What I think is the better choice is for the Canadian Government to create the environment to allow deep pocketed telcos on the scale of Orange, Vodafone, or Deutsche Telekom (aka: T-Mobile) to come in and set up shop in Canada. I suspect if that happened, the incumbents would instantly be forced to drop their prices in order not to run over by these players. Now that’s something that has been hinted at, but never actually been put into action. Perhaps it’s time that it did happen.

Review: HTC One – Part 3

The HTC One has the usual array of front and rear cameras. But let me put that aside for a second and talk about a interesting feature called Zoe. This is a third shooting mode that takes a three-second video whose frames you can selectively retain as stills. That way you can make sure you get the perfect shot. You can also create longer videos by stitching them together, or e-mail a short clip. This is a unique feature that sets this phone apart from the rest with the exception of perhaps the BlackBerry Z10.

Now back to the camera. Forget everything that you know about digital cameras because HTC has flipped that on it’s head. Meet UltraPixel. What’s that? Here’s how HTC describes it:

For years, a misconception among most consumers is that the higher the megapixel count, the better quality of images. Actually, the number of megapixels is only one of many factors that determine picture quality, with sensors and image processors each playing a critical role.

However, year after year manufacturers try to outdo each other with higher megapixels. How? By reducing the size of the pixels to cram more in, which often decreases image quality. That’s because the smaller the pixel, the less light each one collects. This results in more visible noise and other defects in both still images and video.

The more light a digital camera can capture, the more information it can record, resulting in better pictures in more varied conditions and lighting environments.

HTC’s approach is to offer larger pixels in the new sensor that can capture 300% more light than many of the 13 megapixel cameras on the market. Because larger pixels record more light and data, our photos display more shades and greater color accuracy.

Does it work? Yes. Here’s a few examples that I took along Toronto’s waterfront. Click to see them in full size:

These images are vivid and sharp. It’s better than the iPhone 5 by far. Now how about video. For that I went to the TTC Russell (Connaught) Streetcar Carhouse to shoot a video of TTC streetcars being rolled into the yard after their morning rush hour runs. Make sure to pick 1080P and go to full screen to see the quality:

Two things to note. One, you’ll notice that in the first few seconds the camera is trying to auto focus. Once it does that, the images are sharp and the colours are vivid. Second, the sound quality is excellent. You can pick up the sounds of the streetcars perfectly, the cars passing by, even the car radio which I had thought I had turned down to a level where you wouldn’t hear it. Impressive.

Now, let me tie up a few loose ends. The battery life is impressive. I got three days plus with a single charge. That includes heavy GPS usage and video and audio usage. Also, I would also say that even though the phone is easy to hold, I’d recommend a case as the phone has a nice finish and I think once you see it, you’ll want to keep it that way. Finally, with the exception of the BlackBerry z10, this is the easiest phone to set up an e-mail account on. The process took seconds and was painless. I was very impressed by that.

My final verdict? This is an impressive phone. It’s easily the best Android phone that I’ve tested. It is fast, it has the camera I’ve tested, and it has an impressive feature set. The only place where it falls down is in the navigation system. But other than that, this phone is from the top shelf. If HTC fixes the lack of Google Maps speaking the street names, this phone would be pretty much perfect. Now HTC does have challenges at the moment in terms of competing with Samsung and Apple. But with a phone like this, they won’t have challenges for long. They simply have to get the word out and I guarantee that people will by the HTC One in spades.

Review: HTC One – Part 2

This part of the HTC One review covers the software that comes with the phone. There are things that stand out. For example it has a kid mode that allows a parent to hand their HTC One to their kids knowing that they won’t be doing things that they shouldn’t. Plus it helps to put age appropriate games on the smartphone. That’s a nice touch. What isn’t a nice touch is the navigation system. Being an Android phone, it’s powered by Google Maps and it offers turn by turn navigation. However, it doesn’t speak street names. That’s a bit of a fail because it forces you to look at the phone to figure out exactly where to turn. While driving, that’s dangerous. I have to admit that I find it to be even stranger if I consider that my copy of Google Maps on my new iPhone speaks street names. Perhaps it’s a different group within Google that’s responsible for this, or HTC didn’t pay Google enough money? Whatever the reason, this is a major oversight.

Another feature is BlinkFeed. BlinkFeed is an active home screen that aggregates content from different providers such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Updates can be downloaded automatically on a set schedule or BlinkFeed can be refreshed manually. This is slick. This smartphone also have HTC TV which acts as a TV guide as well as control your TV and cable box using the built in IR port. It looks slick, it easy to set up, and works quite well.

Other than that, it’s just like any other Android phone. That’s not a bad thing by the way as most owners are going to put their own software on the phone the second they get it. Though I will note that a DropBox client, as well as Polaris Office which allows you to edit Microsoft Office docs on your phone are present.

In part three of this review, I’ll cover the camera as well as wrap up a few loose ends.

Review: HTC One – Part 1

This week I am reviewing the HTC One which runs on the Telus network. This is HTC’s flagship phone and as you go though this three part review, you’ll see why. It runs Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) and comes in a slim package that is a bit longer and wider than the iPhone 5. The phone is made of aluminium and is easy to hold. One thing to note is that it feels solid and not cheap. This puts it on par with the iPhone 5 in my books. It also feels good in your hand which is a surprise as I thought the phone would be too big in my hand.

The first thing you notice about the phone is the screen. It’s simply stunning. It’s 4.7 inches and is capable of displaying in 1080P. Everything is sharp and clear. One thing that I noticed is that it doesn’t seem to be as prone to attracting fingerprints the way that other phones I’ve tested. That impressed me. What also impressed me was the sound. Phone call sound was outstanding and so is music playback with or without headphones. You can thank BoomSound as well as Beats Audio for the latter.

The next thing you notice is how fast this phone is. Besides having a 1.7GHz quad-core processor and 32GB of storage, it’s on LTE. So when I used the Speedtest.net Android app to test this phone, I got an average of 27390 kbps downstream and 16281 kbps upstream when I tested it. The phone is capable of doing up to 75 Mbps for what it’s worth. Having said that, the phone is not slow. One thing to note, the memory is not expandable. But I do not think that this will be an issue as 32 GB of memory should be enough for most.

The final thing I noticed is the Sense user interface. I found that many aspects of the Sense UI to be improvements over the stock Android interface. It’s clean and gorgeous widgets make this phone very useful. Not only that, it has haptic feedback so it feels like you’re typing on a real keyboard when you type. That’s a nice touch. More on that in the next part of the review. Stay tuned.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Lands At Telus

If you’re looking for a Samsung Galaxy S4, Telus would like you to know that they’ve got it. Designed to enhance the way you live, the GALAXY S4 boasts an incredible array of features, including:

• Full HD Super AMOLED Display: The world’s first-ever Full HD Super AMOLED display, with a whopping 441ppi. The five-inch screen, constructed with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3, is as beautiful as it is tough!
• Effortless innovation: the GALAXY S4 detects your motions, face and voice to enable screen control with no need for finger touch activation (and you can use the screen with gloves, too!)
• Dual Camera Mode: it boasts a 13-megapixel rear camera, equipped with 12 different shooting modes such as Drama Shot (Samsung’s version of time-lapse), and has a dual camera mode that allows you to use both lenses at the same time.
• Blazing speeds: an ultra-fast 1.9GHz Snapdragon Quad-Core Processor and 2GB of RAM for a powerful experience.

…and that’s only scratching the surface!

The Samsung GALAXY S4 is available for $199 on a three-year term or $650 month-to-month. Check out their site for more info.