After launching last week in the U.S., the Galaxy Note 8.0 is now available to purchase in Canada. Right now, the device can be bought at Best Buy, Future Shop, Staples, and other authorized retailers, priced at $429 — which means it’s significantly more expensive than in the U.S.
BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry’s last hope at competing with Android and iOS, has gotten off to a good start since its release last week. The BlackBerry Z10, the first of two BB10 devices that will launch in the coming months, has seen strong sales in the U.K., while there’s plenty of pre-order interest in other markets, too.
What’s likely to be most encouraging to BlackBerry, however, is that 50% of pre-order customers in its native Canada aren’t already BlackBerry customers — they’re switching from the likes of Android, iOS, and Windows Phone.
Today, Facebook updated its Messenger app for both iOS and Android, adding a voice messaging capability to the app on both platforms.
There have also been reports that Facebook has been rolling out a pilot VOIP feature to the Messenger app, which will let users call other Facebook Messenger friends for free, or at least without incurring carrier voice minute debits.
The VOIP option is not available for all users, as the iOS app is the only one with even a mention of the feature in the app description. TechCrunch reported that the pilot program is only available in Canada for now, as well.
According to a source who spoke with Android Central, Rogers is preparing to announce an all new plan structure come tomorrow. A quick glance at the flyer depicting the new plans shows the familiar “unlimited talk” sell. Now that customers have become more data hungry and less dependent on voice, carriers have switched to offering “unlimited” voice and less data (yea, I know) — pawning the “unlimited” voice off as a value (when everyone knows it’s not).
It looks like our friends to the north will now have the ability to pick up the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 at any participating retailer. Samsung launched their larger Note model here in the U.S. last month and despite its tremendous productivity potential, it’s been met with mixed reviews. It carries numerous software bells and whistles, specifically to cater to the S Pen, but some of the hardware isn’t what you’d expect from a $500 device.
Our friends to the north received some good news from Samsung today. According to Samsung Canada, owners of select Galaxy devices will begin receiving their Android 4.0 updates starting today. A total of nine devices were listed in Samsung’s announcement and while only a few will see Ice Cream Sandwich today, Samsung will continue updating them all throughout the quarter. Owners of the following devices will at some point this quarter see Android 4.0:
Canadian Carrier TELUS may be late in the game compared to Rogers and Bell but it won’t matter to Canadian customers who just want those blazing fast LTE speeds. Starting tomorrow, TELUS will flip the LTE switch on for Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area, Kitchener, Waterloo, Hamilton, Guelph, Belleville, Ottawa, Montreal, Québec City, Halifax and Yellowknife. Of course you’re going to need an LTE device to take advantage of the new network and that’s why TELUS will be launching the following new LTE devices:
The behemoth “not a phone, not a tablet” Galaxy Note will be coming to Canada soon, and already has its own landing page where you can sign up for updates on its arrival. This thing has definitely been making the rounds as of late. First we heard about it landing on AT&T, then the possibility of it coming to Verizon and Sprint, and now our brethren to the north are getting it. It won’t be long before we find out just where a 5.3’ device fits into this mobile ecosystem, and whether or not the demand for one will be as big as the hands needed to hold it.
Good news for our brothers to the North. Samsung Mobile Canada sent out a tweet today, announcing the availability of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus on Rogers and Telus. According to the less than 180 characters announcement, both Rogers and Telus will be carrying the Galaxy Nexus starting January 13th. That’s just one week away, and I’m sure one week too long for many.
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