Technology & Business
Government makes 5.27B$ from wireless auction
Now that the Canadian wireless auction for the 700 MHZ band is over, we can list the winners and losers. The first big winner is the Canadian government making a cool 5.27B$. The biggest surprise was Videotron by winning licenses in Ontario, Alberta and BC. Which clearly means they have expansion plans like I wrote about here (link). The biggest spender was Rogers with 3.3B$ next was Telus spending 1.1B$. Rogers spent more than Telus and Bell combined because it bought the largest number of paired blocks.
BBM Coming to windows Phone
Wahoo! BBM coming to #Lumia! #NokiaMWC — Nokia (@nokia) February 24, 2014 Stephen Elop just announced (at the Mobile World Mobile Conference in Barcelona) that Blackberries popular cross-platform mobile messenger app is coming to Windows phone "in the coming months". BBM them sent a press release clarifying that BBM for Windows Phone will be available this summer. Additionally we learned that BBM will also be available for the new Nokia X Android phone also. The press release also confirms that all BBM 2 features will be available at launch (BBM channels, voice, video, etc).
Google wants Android to map the world in 3D
Google took the covers off of a 5" smartphone prototype called Tango. This very special device is equipped with specialized sensors that allow it to "see" the world in 3D (taking 250,000 measurements a second). since the device is a smartphone phone factor (unlike the Microsoft Kinect) they have paid particular attention to designing the system to be low power consumption. Like most bleeding edge Google projects, this started with 2 questions: Can it be done? What can the world develop for it once its available?
Two-step verification for Apple IDs finally lands in Canada
Early last year, many countries were able to use Apple's two-step verification feature for their Apple IDs. It seems today, without much fanfare, Apple released this feature for a bunch of new countries Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, & Spain. <img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/ff31035e56.jpg" alt=""> Go to my apple id (link) <img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/0ea1a8ac3e.jpg" alt=""> You can enable this new feature (and you really should) by following these steps: 1 - Select “Manage your Apple ID” and sign in. 2 - Select “Password and Security.
Telus updates its Travel Pass for Cuba
Canadians love to flock south during the winter to thaw out and get some colour. One of our favourite destinations is Cuba because its close and cheap. Now Telus has updated its Travel Pass for Cuba (offering more for less). I am typically the first person to say "Unlock your phone and buy a pre-paid SIM when you land" but that simply isn't practical for Cuba so this is a nice option. $40 Plan - Get's you 50 minutes of talk, 50 text messages and 50MB of data.
How Target knows you are pregnant through data analytics
We read about the "horrors" of online tracking everyday. We hear about how our privacy is being invaded by "big bad data hungry" online companies and what they could be doing with all that data. Most consumers don't realize that they are handing over extremely personal information to retailers every time they do shopping. Retailers have jumped on the data analytics bandwagon and are collecting and analyzing this data in the hopes of determining what you want and when you want it.
Facebook knows when you're in love before everyone else
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“2500”] Image by epSos.de under Creative Commons License [/caption] Facebook and Google are data companies. They use have some of the world's best data scientists analysis their user data looking for patterns. On Friday, Facebook announced (link) that they can predict when 2 users are about to change their relationship status to "in a relationship". 3 months before a couple updates their relationship status on Facebook to announced their undying love, there is a steady increase in the number of timeline posts shared amongst the 2 lovebirds.
Smart earbuds for music and exercise tracking
A Kickstarter project called ,The Dash, is offering the superhero of bluetooth earphones. The two small buds are packed with sensors such as an accelerometer, thermometer, capacitive touch, bone mic, Infrared LED and optical sensor and more. All of this so you can listen to music (from a phone or from the onboard 4GB of storage) and track your exercise (speed, pace, distance, heart rate, oxygen saturation, etc. It naturally blocks ambient sound (noise isolation) but can let through some sounds so you don't get hit by a car.
BBM 2.0 for IOS and Android coming today
Blackberry promised us BBM 2.0 early 2014 and it looks like they are delivering. The update is expected to be available on the Google Play store and the Apple itunes AppStore today. It wasn't available when I checked but they confirmed it is coming. What does BBM 2.0 bring? BBM Voice : is a cross-platform VOIP system BBM Channels : is a twitter like BBM only one-to-many messaging system BBM Location: location sharing now available via Glympse Attachments: Ability to attach voice notes, calendar events and contacts to a BMM message Dropbox integration for file sharing <img src="https://ekiledjian2.
Top 5 best disposable AA batteries money can buy
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1024”] Image by deanj under Creative Commons License [/caption] One of the questions I get asked the most is about what batteries types and brands readers should buy. I wrote an article in December (link) explaining the difference between high/low drain devices and when you should use alkaline/lithium batteries. I'll wait here while you go and quickly read that article... Go on... I'll wait. OK. So my top 5 favorite batteries are: Energizer Ultimate (Lithium) Energizer Advanced (Lithium) Duracell Quantum (Alkaline) Duracell Ultimate (Alkaline) Kirkland signature (Alkaline) How did I build this list?