Technology & Business
iPhone coming to Videotron March 28
Videotron has had a "interest registration" page for a while promising to notify you when the iPhone eventually made its way to its Quebec only network. Now we see these tweets iPhone 5s is coming to Videotron on March 28 http://t.co/2KmYBPMDfW — Videotron (@Videotron) March 14, 2014 iPhone 5c is coming to Videotron on March 28 http://t.co/VGXWKEIgME — Videotron (@Videotron) March 14, 2014 We know Videotron bought 700MHZ spectrum outside of Quebec with the hopes of expanding its services accross Canada.
PhotoDirector 4 MAC/PC Free until March 16
Nothing feel better than getting something of value for free. Now CyberLink is running a special promo for CNET's Download.com by offering their well respected ($99) photo management app for free. Head over to this special promo page (link) and enter promo code PHD4CNET in the "redeem code" box. You get an immediate discount which brings the price to $0, nada, zilch.
Roam Mobility now sold at 265 Futureshop and BestBuy locations
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1800”] Image by cogdogblog Under Creative Commons License [/caption] As a casual traveller to the US, I am always looking for ways to stay connected affordably and Roam Mobility has been my consistent go to provider. They offer a mix of plans to suit everyone and the pricing is extremely competitive. The only complaint I would hear was around buying one of their special roaming sim cards. Now you can pickup their products at any one of the 265 Futureshop or Bestbuy locations across Canada ( Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland).
Demo of Cortana, Microsoft's answer to Siri
We have known that Microsoft's answer to Siri was in the works and code-named Cortana but for the first time, we get a video demo leak. Cortana will be included in Windows Phone 8.1 Since Cortana requires a Microsoft account, it is almost certain that the heavy lifting is being done in the cloud and that it will use its cloud storage infrastructure to move your profile (searches, customizations, etc) between devices. There will be a customization process to ensure Cortana give you the best possible response (as an example what type of restaurants you prefer).
Blackberry 10 receives Microsoft OneDrive client
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about Microsoft rebranding its SkyDrive cloud storage service to Microsoft OneDrive (link). BkBlackberry has done a great job integrating cloud storage providers into its base os on BB10 devices. Out of the gate, BB10 supports Dropbox and Box. Now you can add Microsoft OneDrive support to that list with the availability of the Connect to Microsoft OneDrive app (link). The functionality of this new add on is exactly the same as that of Dropbox and Box.
Buy a Samsung Galaxy S5 and get $500 of gifts
Maybe the shiny new Samsung Galaxy S5 and its boatload of features wasn't enough to entice you to fork over your hard earned money. Samsung has sweetened the pot with $500 (link) of extra premium services and apps. Of the apps listed, the ones I think are the most interesting: 1 year of premium RunKeeper 6 months of premium MapMyFitness 6 months of Wall Street Journal 1 year of the Bloomberg BusinessWeek 3 months of premium LinkedIn 3 months of premium Bitcasa cloud storage 3 months of premium Evernote and more I would have loved 1 year or Evernote and Bitcasa but this still isn't too shabby
New MotoX Coming this Summer
Q from twitter: When is next version of Moto X? A: Keep posted - hint - late summer. #MotoMWC — Motorola Mobility (@Motorola) February 25, 2014 Since Motorola Mobility is now a Lenovo company, many asked if Motorola would be updating its aging MotoX and during a Twitter Q&A, we learned that the answer is yes. Expect the updated version sometime late summer. Thats all we know but expect rumours to drop out of China as the release gets closer.
The Goophone Samsung Galaxy S5 knockoff available
The creative and hardworking team at Goophone have managed to clone the Samsung Galaxy S5 in about 2 days. What did Goophone name this clone/copy/tip-off/fake? They called it the Goophone S5. It comes with a 5" 1920x1080 screen 2GHz octa-core MediaTek processor GSM, WCDMA (HSUPA, HSDPA) 2GB RAM 2800mAh battery 13 megapixel read camera 5 megapixel front camera Available in white, black, gold and blue Dual-SIM card slots Android 4.2 (with Google Play) All of this for only $299.
Whatsapp to add voice Services
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“531”] Image by abulhussain under Creative Commons License [/caption] Read up about Telegram Messenger, a solid Whatsapp alternative (link) Whatsapp was swallowed by Facebook in exchange for a cool $19B. To keep it exciting and in the news, the CEO, Jan Koum, announced that they will be bringing voice services to market. Sure you can send voice notes today but they want to bring actual voice calling functionality to their users. Is this something that excites you? Do you really need another VOIP client?
Telegram Messenger is a nice Whatsapp alternative
Now that Whatsapp was bought by Facebook for $19B, many users are searching for a new instant messaging platform to use. Enter Telegram Messenger (link). Telegram Messenger is the brainchild of russian technology magnate Pavel Durov. Pavel is rich enough that he can pretty much do whatever he wants and said he wanted to build an easy to use, secure and free instant messaging platform that he could share with the world. After all of the Edward Snowden NSA revelations, tech users have been searching for a more secure non-US based IM system and Pavel believes his Telegram Messenger is the perfect answer.