Canada to finally get the Kindle

Hold the applause (yes, all 5 of you) Amazon has decided to finally allow Canadians the opportunity to get their hands on the Kindle. The highly coveted ebook reader. Ok, so “coveted” is going overboard. However all is not bells and whistles. Canadians will still have to pay the import duty of approximately $30 pushing cost of the device up to $300 after the dust settles. Really?! I’m not sure that little crappy display is even worth $100.

I’ll admit that I’m surprised at the success this ebook reader has enjoyed, especially in the U.S. (since we all know Anericans don’t read, they watch CNN). Logically the unit should do even better here in Canada but somehow I don’t think so. Number 1 the price is a barrier. Perhaps a small time college will jump on the bandwagon and offer up their textbooks via ebook and issue a Kindle with tuition costs but other than than I don’t see many jumping on board.

The other barrier is competition. Canadian shoppers are savvy and many have already adopted the Sony ebook reader at a fraction of the cost (no import duties here). Amazon’s delay to enter the Canadian market has forced interested buyers to look elsewhere and there are no shortage of ebook readers available.

Too late? Perhaps, there those die hard fans who will still buy one but beyond that the projected sales numbers look pretty bleak. Because we all know Canadians don’t read, they watch hockey.

Dell Mini 9: Canadians get no Ubuntu love

I’ve been constantly refreshing the the Canadian Dell site and this morning I was pleasantly surprised that the Mini 9 is now available. Awesome! One thing odd I noticed though, no Ubuntu option. WTF?

Just for fun I decided to call up the 1-800 number. On hold for a short while I got connected to and agent over in India (surprise, surprise) I tell him, “I’m on the Canadian website, and I noticed there’s no option for Ubuntu for the Mini 9, can I order the Mini 9 with Ubuntu instead of Windows XP?” After repeating myself and speaking slowly he informed me that I had been connected to the wrong department and forwards my call to another agent.

On hold for a bit longer I get connected to another agent. I ask the same question. He puts me on hold for a while and then comes back with this, “Currently the Mini 9 is not available with Ubuntu” and when I asked him if there were any plans to offer it with Ubuntu pre-installed he said that “this is a brand new launch, no information is available regarding that configuration”. Ok no problem, thanks.

He didn’t seem to want to let me off the line. Smelling a potential sale he gave me his agent code/number to put in when/if I decided to go ahead and purchase it online. This way he would be my “personal contact” and would be available for post purchase support. Um, yeah right. How about just telling me the truth? You get a commission, duh!

So I’m a little disappointed. U.S. customers have the option but Canadian are getting no Ubuntu love. Guess I’ll wait and see if there are any changes in the upcoming days.

Canadian site

U.S. site

IBM & University of Toronto to create supercomputer

The University of Toronto and IBM Corp are building Canada’s most powerful supercomputer, a mammoth machine that will need its own building for storage and will be capable of performing 360 trillion calculations per second.

It’s expected the system will be among the top 20 fastest supercomputers in the world and the largest outside the United States. It will be able to store data equivalent to that held by one million regular DVDs.

The entire budget of the project, which includes construction and operating costs, is just under C$50 million ($47 million) over five years.

Its power is roughly equivalent to “30,000 to 40,000 home computers linked together,” said Chris Pratt, strategic initiatives executive at IBM Canada. (link)

Google: throttling is illegal (gives Bell the evil eye)

Google Inc. says Bell Canada Inc. is breaking Canadian telecommunications law by slowing certain internet traffic, and is urging the CRTC to take action against the company.

“Bell claims its throttling of peer-to-peer applications is a reasonable form of network management. Google respectfully disagrees. Network management does not include Canadian carriers’ blocking or degrading lawful applications that consumers wish to use,” the company wrote in a 15-page submission to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which was made public over the weekend.

“From consumer, competition and innovation perspectives, throttling applications that consumers choose is inconsistent with a content and application-neutral internet, and a violation of Canadian telecommunications law, which forbids unfair discrimination and undue or unreasonable preferences and requires that regulation be technologically and competitively neutral.” (link)

Canadian iPhone only available with 3 year contract

Rogers Communications Inc. announced earlier this month that it will bring the iPhone to Canada on July 11 at the same prices as AT&T, but it will require customers to sign three-year contracts. The company sells a number of phones with the option of one-, two- or three-year contracts, where the shorter the deal is, the more the customer pays for the device up front. The iPhone, however, will be the only device with just the three-year option.

A spokesperson for Rogers declined to comment as to why Canadian customers will have longer contracts than their counterparts in other countries.

“While I won’t speak to our contractual agreement, all carriers are different,” Elizabeth Hamilton said.

While it is possible another carrier elsewhere in the world could announce it will sell the iPhone under a three-year contract, a longer term than that is unheard of, making Rogers’ plans the longest. (link)