Bank of Canada Holds Key Interest Rate
By · CommentsThe Bank of Canada today annonunced that the key overnight lending rate will be held at 1.0%
The interest rate was predicted to rise today as recently as last month but recent economic uncertainty worldwide helped hold the rate steady.
Citing the slowing global economy and growing uncertainty in the financial world, the bank warned that monetary stimulus will be needed for the time being.
“Reflecting all these factors, the bank has decided to maintain the target for the overnight rare at one per cent,” it said in a statement.
The US vetos AT&T T-Mobile merger
By · CommentsThe US government announced that it will block the proposed AT&T and T-Mobile merger. This is great news for consumers as the merger would have virtually eliminated any competition and would have created almost a duopoly with AT&T and Verizon. It seems the government agreed by saying: “AT&T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low-priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market.”
Apparently Sprint shares the same opinion; (Sprint could have been really hurt by this deal): “Sprint applauds the DOJ for conducting a careful and thorough review and for reaching a just decision – one which will ensure that consumers continue to reap the benefits of a competitive U.S. wireless industry.”
Of course AT&T is upset by the decision and will continue to fight; it is clear this battle is not over because if they do lose AT&T has to pay T-Mobile $3 billion.
For all fans of free market competition or just those people hoping for a good deal, today was a good day.
Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple
By · CommentsThere was devastating news for Apple fans today as Steve Jobs officially resigned as CEO of Apple. It has been rumored for a while now that Steve might leave due to his medical condition and Apple has been preparing a successor just in case the worst happened.
The reasons he gave for leaving were a little vague, saying only: “I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.” So his leaving at this time might be due to his medical condition but who really knows.
He also recommended Tim Cook as his successor, but Steve won’t be far away as he said he would like to stay on as Chairman of the Board at Apple.
So is Apple changing forever or will it continue its success? Many know that Apple struggled before Steve Jobs took over but Tim Cook contributed a lot as well. So does Tim Cook have the chops to lead Apple as well as Steve Jobs did? Only time will tell.
RIMs Privacy in the UK
By · CommentsIt seems RIM is reversing its policy on privacy. As you may have heard, there have been governments that, in the name of national security, have claimed the right to see what people are saying on their Blackberries. RIM has always fought these demands which led to RIM almost being kicked out of several countries.
In a complete about-face, it seems RIM is voluntarily giving out private information to the UK government — information that apparently they didn’t even ask for. The person whose privacy was invaded was a teenager using a BBM to organize more rioting.
Whether justified or not, it is certainly an eye opener.
Google acquires Motorola
By · CommentsGoogle never attempted to enter the hardware market; it’s main focus has always been software. But Google’s strategy seems to be changing based on the announced acquisition of Motorola.
Google bought Motorola for $12.5 billion after Motorola announced a quarterly loss of $56 million. Google seems to have two reasons for the acquisition and people are speculating which is Google’s priority.
Since Motorola is one of several vendors that offer phones that support Google’s Android operating system, it is a logical way for Google to finally get into the hardware game. As one of the industry leaders in software it will be interesting what will happen once Google competes in both markets.
The second incentive for buying Motorola is the threat of patent lawsuits. Motorola was considering suing other Android OEMs for patent infringements which would have hurt Android, which is already being sued by Apple and Microsoft. The question is did Google buy Motorola in order to own its patents and take over the lawsuits themselves, or as self-defense against being sued by others.
Other Android OEMS appear to be excited by the Google/Motorola deal but it almost seems as if their responses were scripted. For example, CEO of Sony Ericsson said “I welcome Google’s commitment to defending Android and its partners;” and the CEO of LG said “We welcome Google’s commitment to defending Android and its partners.” The other OEM statements were very similar but it is understandable they would be happy since the acquisition prevents their being sued by Motorola. It is a very tangled web of motives — only time will tell what the new relationship between Motorola and Google will bring.
New WiFi 802.22
By · CommentsUpset with carriers imposing data caps and charging for every possible feature? Good news! It looks like with the new WiFi standard we won’t have to deal with carriers anymore.
The most impressive thing about the new WiFi is that it can broadcast up to 100 km while still maintaining a speed of 22 Mbps. How is this possible? The new WiFi uses old TV signals like VHF and UHF TV bands so it doesn’t interrupt current channels and allows for a whole new way of transferring data.
This makes the speed of 4G/LTE possible without costing hundreds of dollars a month. It will be interesting to see what carriers will do in response since many of their customers will be switching to a a more open and cheaper alternative.
Apple July update
By · CommentsApple made a couple of announcements recently concerning new computers, a new OS and some impressive numbers.
First, they officially released their newest OS, Mac OSX Lion, which sold over 1,000,000 copies within 24 hours of being released — the fastest selling OS ever at Apple. This was impressive enough but Apple also announced their Q3 earnings and record profits of $7.31 billion with 4 million Macs sold, 7.5 million ipods sold, 9 million ipads and 20 million iphones.
Finally, Apple updated their Macs, specifically the Macbook Air and Mac mini bringing them up to speed with the rest of the Mac line. Apple now has both the Thunderbolt and i5 and i7 processors. The Macbook Air now has a backlit keyboard, while the Mac mini comes with some pluses and minuses. It no longer has a disc drive but it has a better GPU and is $100 cheaper.
Not huge changes to the Macs but a welcomed refreshing that keeps them up to date with the rest of the line.
Canada has 4G
By · CommentsThe United States has both major carriers, Verizon and AT&T, working on LTE, the very fast 4G that will replace 3G in the future. But Canada seems to be right behind them with Rogers offering a live LTE network in Ottawa right now.
Rogers is offering two months of unlimited data if you sign up for the $45 1.5GB plan or the $90 9GB plan. The plans are still not very good, but many will sign up for LTE as it is faster than some people’s home internet service. It is a good sign that Canada is moving forward technologically and keeping up with the rest of the world but also being ahead of many.
HP Touchpad
By · CommentsWhen HP acquired Palm, consumers eagerly awaited the product their marriage produced. The HP Veer gave people just a taste. Many expected the Touchpad to be the device that would show the full capability of WebOS. Sadly, many were disappointed with this tablet having expected a lot more from a huge company like HP.
The first issue was the price. HP priced the Touchpad at the same price as the ipad, $499 for 16GB and $599 for 32GB. What they should have done was price it $100 or so cheaper so it would give people the incentive to jump ship on their iPad. Once they had a significant customer base HP would be able to get more developers to write apps allowing them to compete with the iPad. Trying to take on the iPad full force is not a good idea. Just look how poorly the other tablets are selling compared to the iPad. The only other tablet that is doing relatively well is the Asus E-pad Transformer, and that is mostly because it’s priced $100 less than the iPad.
One of the biggest problems of WebOS is their users base is small compared to the competition so there are no many developers making apps. No one can argue with the success of the iPad and in light of that popularity the question is, why would someone buy anything else? Compared to the Touchpad, the hardware is in the favor of the iPad as the iPad 2 is thinner, lighter, has an extra camera and has the same screen size. (The Touchpad does have a 1.2GHz dual core processor and 1GB of ram but it is slower anyway). So HP would have to offer more software in order to get people to choose the Touchpad over the iPad. But at this point in time the iPad has more apps of better quality and is more stable, overall.
In fact, my personal experience with the Touchpad was frustrating since it was very slow, at times wouldn’t recognize my finger, and applications would crash. The hardware didn’t feel like a finished product ready for consumers, it felt more like a prototype. The software can be fixed with updates which HP promises to do, but until they fix these issues it will be very hard to recommend it over the iPad. When it is fixed it will be the best tablet available, other then the iPad, for its great multitasking, its synergy with other WebOS products, and Form Factor (that only the iPad and Touchpad support).
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Nokia N9
By · CommentsNokia revealed to the world its N9 smartphone running new-comer smartphone OS MeeGo. The phone is simply a slate with a 3.9 inch AMOLED screen with no buttons on the front. It has 1GB of RAM and a 1 Ghz processor. This is not that impressive compared to some Android phones that are running a 1.2 Ghz Dual-core processor, but from what was demonstrated that is all the memory needed to run MeeGo as fast or even faster than the competition. The N9 has the normal smartphone features — Bluetooth (2.1), NFC, GPS, 8 megapixel camera, WiFi, Light sensor, Compass, and a very impressive battery which is supposed to outlasts the iPhone 4 by an hour or two.
The N9 is clearly the most impressive Nokia phone on the market as it ditches the horrible Symbian software Nokia phones previously ran on and uses the not-yet-proven MeeGo, which shows great promise. The only issue is that Nokia will most likely not support it or continue to make MeeGo products as they continue their push towards WP7 phones. Even though everyone has been blown away by how great MeeGo has turned out, Stephen Elop (Nokia CEO) is claiming that no matter how well the N9 does Nokia will not make any more MeeGo phones. At this point many are questioning why Stephen Elop is so dead set on WP7. With such an amazing OS to work with as MeeGo, people are suspicious that Stephen Elop has questionable motives, especially in light of the fact that before coming to Nokia he worked at Microsoft which could explain this Windows Phone transition.