Edward Kiledjian

Black Friday is almost here for my american readers and the'll have to chose with console to pickup. Obviously this is a first-world problem.

Google had said its All Access Music service would be coming to IOS in May and many months later, still nothing. Our favorite leaker has now come forward with happy information that Google Music for IOS will launch shortly (or as he said, the launch is "imminent").

Under Armor has its own Armour39 tracking service but most users complained it lacked some basic features and wasn't polished enough. It seems Under Armour heard all the complaints and is buying competing fitness app MapMyFitness (for $150M)

MapMyFitness brings 20 millions users and the ability to suck in data from Jawbone UP, Nike Fuelband and of course from its own smartphone apps. UnderArmor will leverage all of this tech and user base to take fitness analytics to the next level. 

Under Armour

It seems every new smartphone tries to beat (on specs anyway) the previous generation and the byproduct of this competition is $800 smartphones. Today Motorola is trying a different approach by releasing an interesting mid-level device for $US180 off contract.

For the $US180, you get:

• 8GB of internal storage ($200 for 16GB)
• 4.5" 1280x720 (329PPI) display
• Snapdragon 400 processor (quad-core running at 1.2GHz)
• comes with the latest Android 4.4
• The trusted bluetooth feature from the MotoX is in the MotoG

No one expects a monster device for $180 so there are phone features you will be sacrificing like 

• No LTE (up to HSPA+ 21MBps)
• A 5 megapixel read camera 
• 720p video capture maximum (no 1080p)
• No always listening mode (like the Moto X)

Even with all of the above, I think this will become a huge hit for Motorola and hopefully other carriers will start making more affordable phones for the next 1 billion users that will get connected.

It seems the phone may be available in Canada, Latin America, Europe and Asia in the next couple of weeks. It is expected to hit US shelves early 2014.

Apple did a stealth launch of the iPad Mini overnight at 0300ET and the Apple,ca online reservation system is now available to serve you (yes... even in Canada). It lists the locations that have inventory and the list seems to change periodically so check it out to see if your local Apple store has any available.

Ive checked a couple of times and even touched base with American contacts and it seems the only models available immediately are the WIFI versions in 16/32GB versions.

At 0730ET all locations were in Ontario and Quebec but this may change throughout the day.

It seems none of the manufacturers can keep their upcoming devices secret and now Motorola has fallen victim to spec leaks for its upcoming Moto G budget phone.

Let me introduce you to the upcoming Motorola Moto G Android smartphone.

We expec the phone to be announced today at 9AM and nothing should be considered confirmed until then but here is what we think we know so far:

• 4.5-inch 720p LCD display
• 1.2GHz quad-core processor
• 1GB of RAM
• 5MP camera that shoots 720p HD video
• 1.3MP front-facing camera
• HSPA+ data connectivity (no indication of LTE)
• 8GB of internal storage
• 129.9 x 65.9 x 11.6 mm
• 143 grams
• 2,070mAh Li-Ion battery

We expect the price to be around $US 250 without a contract.

Leak source The Unwired

Windows phone is a nice mobile operating system for people upgrading from a featurephone (or dumb phone). Its major problem was that many of the most popular Android and IOS apps were missing from its ecosystem.

Now another app has finally made its way to Windows Phone (version 8 only) is Vine. The app seems to be a nice port that takes into account the Windows Phone operating system specific features like Live Tiles, lens support, adding Vine users to your home screen, etc.

The core feature of Vine are all included. The newer feature from Android and IOS are still missing but should come eventually if the app becomes popular on Windows Phone.

I doubt this will make anyone swtich from Android or IOS to Windows Phone but it does give Windows Phone users more features they have been asking for.

Download it from here now.

As excited as we were for the release of the Nexus 5, we were more excited to see Android 4.4 (aka Kitkat). One benefit of a Nexus device is super fast updates and now we learn that the Nexus 4,7,10 devices will be getting the update shortly. Additionally the update for Google experience phones HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 will receive their updates in a couple of weeks.

Can't wait for the automatic update, go to Settings > About device > Software to check.

Telus is flying high with a good subscriber count, revenue increase and a reduction in user complaints.

When Telus announced their Q3 results, we learned that they had a 5.2% increase in wireless revenue (compared to a year ago). They added about 100,000 subscribers (now counting 7,810,000 subscribers).

For the first time, Telus also included coverage information in its report. We learned that their HSPA+ network reaches 34.9 million Canadians. The Telus LTE network reaches 27.9 million Canadians.

The Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications released an interesting report showing that Telus had a solid 27% decline in consumer complaints (year over year).

Official Release

700mhz is an incredible band that every carrier wants to get a hold off. It goes through buildings like a hot knife in butter. It reaches much further which is great for providing coverage is rural areas. Canada is about to auction is highly prized band and 15 bidders wanted in on the action. Now Industry Canada has published the final list of qualified bidders.

The auction starts mid-January and the government is hopeful this will spur wireless competition. 

1. Bell Mobility Inc.
2. Bragg Communications Incorporated
3. Feenix Wireless Inc.
4. Globalive Wireless Management Corp.
5. MTS Inc.
6. Novus Wireless Inc.
7. Rogers Communications Partnership
8. Saskatchewan Telecommunications
9. TBayTel
10. TELUS Communications Company
11. The Catalyst Capital Group Inc.
12. Vidéotron

the iPhone is a wondrous device that has thousands of uses thanks to all the 3rd party peripherals and apps available in the ecosystem. Now you can add laser pointer to the list. 

You plug the device into the headphone jack and instantly convert your $800 smartphone into a $30 635nm laser beam.

When you plug anything into your headphone jack, the phone thinks you have headphones plugged in so it redirects are outgoing sounds and incoming sounds to the headphone jack, which is typically bad. By turning the iPin 90 degrees, the contacts get moved and the phone assumes the "headphones" have been unplugged and everything works normally. turn it back to use the iPin's laser pointer feature. 

iPin Laser 

Plusus is releasing a very portable charge cable solution called Lifelink which is the size of a credit card and 2 credit cards thick.  

Once opened up, it give you almost 7" of cable so you don't need to shove it next to the charge source (laptop, adapter, etc) 

The flexible cable is reinforced with unbreakable Teflon so it will last a long time. when clipped to your keys, it is light and you will hardly know it is with you (until you need it). 

Make sure you follow this special link to get 50% off during the pre-order phase by signing up for their newsletter.

50% off link 

For transparency, I have no financial benefit from the above link (referral or otherwise). I am providing it as a service to my readers.

PlusUs LifeLink 

EVLeaks has reported that Motomaker is coming to more US carriers which means more Americans will soon be able create customized Moto X Google Android smartphones. 

Rad URL is an interesting website that lists the 100 most popular links being shared on Facebook and Twitter.

You can sort the list to see Facebook or Twitter only lists or watch the entire combined glorious list displaying the sentiment of the internet. The list is updated every 15 minutes but major changes to the list happen every  hour or two.

RadURL

As the holiday season approaches, you may be looking for a great all purpose camera and the Canon Rebel  SL1 will definitely not disappoint. It is called the world's smallest and lightest APS-C dSLR.

The Rebel SL1 is the smaller brother of the larger Rebel T5i. They both share the same 18MP sensor and DIGIC 5 processor.  Its fantastic that Canon was able to fit all of the t5i guts into such a small body and at the same time keeping most of the Rebel family buttons intact.

Typically most users jumping to this family of device are coming from point and shoot devices and are looking for better quality photos but also fast autofocus. The Rebel SL1 won't disappoint with the generation 2 of Canon's hybrid CMOS Autofocus system. 

Picture Quality

Even though I knew the SL1 contains the same guts as the T5i, I was expecting sub-par image quality but I was wrong. The device produced beautiful beautiful, vivid and sharp JPG images from ISO 100 to ISO 800. The in camera processing was excellent which means you won't have to save in RAW then spend time converting to JPG with a PC app. When you reach ISO 1600, you start to lose some of the finer detail and the inclusion of light artifacts.

As you continue to increase the ISO, the images become less sharp, you start seeing chromatic aberrations and you lose some of the vividness. The worst of it hits around ISO 12000.

The camera supports the Canon RAW format and at lower ISO (under 1600) the quality is comparable to the in-camera generated JPG. The higher the ISO the better it is to shoot in RAW so you can perform post-processing to improve the final results.

Conclusion

Overall I think this is a fantastic camera for the general camera user looking for a small and light dSLR. The design is small but easy to grip. Images up to ISO 6400 are wonderful even when using the in-camera JPG conversion feature. The screen is touch responsive and a good representation of the picture you will take. The new hybrid auto-focus is fast and accurate (little lag between press and take). Little chromatic aberrations and full HD video recording capabilities.

Are there any negatives? Yes Sir!

Although many may prefer the smaller frame, those with bigger hands may find it too small.the Autofocus illuminator is built into the flash which means the flash has to be enabled to use it. This is not desirable because I tend to prefer non-flash pictures when possible.

Overall an excellent purchase for most consumers and highly recommended.